OWLs
by MoonCat457
Summary: Emma MacKenzie has been best friends with Harry, Ron and Hermione for 4 years. But now, as they are starting their 5th year, emotions and secrets are starting to complicate things.
1. Chapter 1: Homecoming at Grimmauld Place

_Emma,_

 _I won't be going to Diagon Alley the same time you are. You know it was hard enough to convince me mum to let me to go back to school this year. She doesn't want there to be any chance of running into Potter. I've explained all of this to you before._

 _Also, I still don't understand why I can't send any letters directly to you. This whole secretive sending letters to the Ministry for your father to deliver them to you is getting bloody ridiculous._

 _This is all about Potter isn't it? And keeping him "safe". There's nothing out there. He's not in any "danger"._

 _But whatever, I'll see you at school._

 _Seamus_

Emma MacKenzie sat on the bed cross-legged on Ron's bed re-reading the letter for the third time trying to figure out how to respond to her boyfriend. _He is in danger. And I can't tell you about headquarters, no matter how much I wish that I could,_ she thought putting the letter down next to her. She brought her knees to her chest and rested her forehead on them, letting her long, auburn hair fall around her, creating a shield between her and the outside world.

Emma has been dating Seamus Finnegan since the Yule Ball last school year, although some would say they had been dating since way before that. Emma and Seamus were Gryffindor's biggest "will they, won't they" couple since the end of their 3rd year. Seamus was convinced he couldn't compete against "the boy who lived", nevermind the fact that Emma was closer to him and confided in him things that she had never told Harry, Ron or Hermione. It wasn't until she plucked up the courage to ask him to the Yule Ball herself that he finally got the hint.

His jealousy of Harry never quite faded, despite Emma's constant reassurances. His excuse was always that "guys and girls can't be that close and only be just friends". Except he wasn't jealous of her friendship with Ron, only hers with Harry. But he was always good at hiding it, at least until what happened at the Tournament a few months ago. Seamus' mother is one of the many people that are believing the stories the Daily Prophet is telling, like the rest of the rest of the Wizarding world. With Emma defending Harry and Seamus mother nearly removing him from school, their relationship has become strained with constant fighting.

"Harry!" shouted Hermione.

Emma was brought back to the world with a start. She looked up and saw Harry standing in the doorway, nearly being tackled by Hermione. Emma bounded off the bed and made a run for him as well, joining in on the hug. Harry gave a look to Ron, who was standing off in a the corner well away from the excitement occurring in front of him.

"All right, let the man breathe. He just flew all the way from Little Whinging," Ron said as he walked towards the doorway where Harry was standing. Emma and Hermione let Harry go. "Come on mate, have a seat."

"Oh Harry, are you alright? We heard about the Dementors." Emma said worried.

Harry sat on the spare bed and Emma sat cross-legged next to him. Hermione and Ron sat across from them on Ron's bed.

"They simply can't expel you, Harry. You were only protecting yourself. I mean, they have to see that. Who just casts a Patronus charm for fun with no Dementors around?" Hermione said quickly.

What is this place?" asked Harry slowly.

"Headquarters. For the Order of the Phoenix." answered Ron.

"How come all of this wasn't in anyone's letters? I've gone the entire summer without any news."

"We weren't allowed to mate."

"Dumbledore swore us to secrecy." Hermione said, wringing her hands in her lap nervously.

"We really wanted to tell you Harry, promise." Emma turned to face Harry and placed her hand on his arm. "He said you would be safer if you didn't know until closer to the start of term.

"Safer? Wouldn't I have been safer here all summer with you all? You know with my friends and under magical protections?" Harry said through clenched teeth.

Emma and Hermione looked at Harry with concern as Ron started to open his mouth to speak. Suddenly, Fred and George apparated behind Harry.

"Hey Potter. So they're starting to fill you in eh?" George walks around the bed and sits next to Emma. She flinches. "Sorry MacKenzie did I startle you?"

"Stop doing that!" Emma shouted as she hit him in the arm.

George rubbed his arm, feigning injury. Emma rolled her eyes.

"Fred and George have been apparating everywhere since they turned of age. It was cool at first, but now it's just annoying." Ron said while rolling his eyes.

"Ah Harry, don't listen to him. Ron is just jealous. Now, who wants to hear something a little more interesting? If we hurry we can catch the end of the meeting," Fred smiled mischievously.

"How?" said Harry curiously.

"Extendable ears. They just invented them," Ginny entered the room and smiled at Harry. "Hi Harry. Welcome back."

"Yea we've been using them all summer. Let's go." said George as he stood up.

Everyone stood and made their way toward the door except for Emma. She sat further on the bed, closed her eyes, and went to lean against the headboard.

George lingered in the doorway for a moment then turned around. "Hey Emma are you ok?"

Emma sat up with a start. "What?" she paused for a moment, "Oh yea, I'm totally fine." she said with unconvincing enthusiasm. _No I'm not, but I don't want to let anyone else know that right now, especially with all that's going on,_ she thought as she fidgeted uncomfortably. She looked down at her hands resting in her lap.

George hesitated then closed the door. Emma looked up slightly as he walked over to the bed she was sitting on and sat down next to her. "It's Seamus again isn't it?" he said cautiously.

Emma looked at him, opened her mouth, then closed it again. _How on Earth did he know that?_

"I overheard you talking to Ginny the other night. Sorry, I don't mean to pry," George smiled sheepishly and rubbed his hand on his neck. Emma looked down again to avoid eye contact. "It's ok," he said reassuringly, "you don't have to say anything. I just thought that I would check up on you."

Emma looked up at George for a moment and they locked eyes. George smiled reassuringly.

"It's just…" Emma paused, unsure of she wanted to say, "ever since the end of term he's been... different. All we do is fight and he keeps accusing me of… Well, he doesn't like that I'm defending Harry," she took a shaky breath. "It's like he trust me anymore, which is ridiculous. And he's making this all about him. He doesn't seem to care that I'm having a hard time–" she stopped short and averted her eyes for a moment, embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to just unload like that."

"Don't apologize, it's alright," George reached out his hand to touch hers and hesitated, thinking better of it. He pulled his hand back again and continued, "It sounds like Seamus is being a downright git. You don't deserve that. You deserve someone who cares. Someone who can make you laugh. Someone who understands…"

Emma looked back up at him. He looked her in the eyes and smiled. She felt her face return a small, sheepish smile.

"If you want I can sneak him some fever fudge or nosebleed nougats when we get back, teach him a lesson," he said mischievously.

Emma laughed. "No I think that might be a little overkill, but thanks for the offer," she laughed again then smiled.

George returned a huge grin. "Hey, why don't we go join the others. What do you say?"

"I think I'm gonna stay behind. I need to return some letters before dinner." she glanced at the letter sitting behind her, then looked back at George.

"Ok, if you're sure. I'll fill you in later." George got up and walked to the door. Before opening the door he turned to glance at Emma. After a few seconds he opened the door and disappeared into the hallway.

Emma brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. _You know, he's right,_ she thought to herself, _I don't deserve Seamus treating me this way._ She felt a smile creep onto her face as she thought about George, then shook her head as if to get rid of the thought. _I must be going crazy…_ She grabbed Seamus' letter and stared at it for a moment before crumpling it up and throwing it into the empty fireplace.


	2. Chapter 2: An Uncomfortable Dinner

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Fred stood crowded around the top of the stairwell, 3straining their ears to hear anything they could from downstairs.

"It's no use, I can't hear a thing. I'm going to go see if mom needs any help with dinner." Ginny said exasperated. She looked at Hermione questioningly, wordlessly asking if she would be joining.

"I'll be down in a few minutes to help." Hermione answered.

Ginny nodded and squeezed past her brothers to go downstairs. George exited the bedroom and bumped into his sister. She looked at him confused and opened her mouth to ask where he had been, but shut it again. She shook her head and headed down the spiral staircase. Fred turned to look at his brother, who was the only one who noticed George's appearance. He looked at George with the same confused look Ginny had given. George looked at Fred with a look that said "what are you looking at?". Fred shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"What happened?" asked George, getting the attention of Harry, Ron and Hermione who hadn't noticed that George was missing until then.

"Hermione's stupid cat ate the extendable ear," Ron said rolling his eyes at her.

"It's a cat Ronald, what do you expect?" she retorted quickly, crossing her arms.

Just then, a shout came from downstairs, "EVERYONE! COME WASH UP FOR DINNER!" Mrs. Weasley bellowed.

"Hey George, where's Emma?" asked Hermione, noticing that Emma hadn't followed George out of the bedroom.

"She said she wasn't feeling well and would come down in a little for dinner," he replied

"I think I'll go check on her. Everyone go ahead down to dinner."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Ron said eagerly. Harry nodded and they both headed down the stairs.

Just as Hermione was about to knock on the bedroom door, it opened. Emma walked out, nearly bumping into Hermione. "Did I hear dinner?" she asked.

"Yea, I was just about to come check on you. George said you weren't feeling well," Hermione said concerned.

"Oh I'm just a little tired is all. Nothing to worry about," Emma said dismissively. She noticed George was looking at her and blushed, then smiled and looked down.

Hermione looked from Emma to George and back. She gave a sideways glance at Fred, to see if he noticed the same thing she did. "All right, well let's go down for dinner. I'm sure Mrs. Weasley needs help setting the table," she said cautiously.

Emma nodded and followed Hermione down the staircase. George went to follow them but his arm was caught by Fred.

"Not so fast," Fred said, peering down the stairwell waiting until the girls were out of earshot. "What was that all about?" he asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said George feigning confusion.

"Ok," Fred said, unconvinced, "then what were you and Emma talking about in there?"

"Nothing really. I was just checking up on her. She seemed a little off before. Can I go down to dinner now?" George asked impatiently.

"Oh really? I didn't notice," Fred said, ignoring George's question. He paused for a moment then continued, talking slowly, "But you noticed… Is there anything going on there?"

"What? No. She was just talking to me about Seamus...her boyfriend. He's being a downright git."

"Right… and now she talks to you about this stuff rather than Hermione or Ginny? Hmmm… well I guess we should go down to dinner. Mum will be barking if we aren't down there soon." Fred looked at his brother again, trying to gain any information from his facial expressions, then apparated downstairs, followed by George.

The twins appeared right behind their mother, startling her. "OH you boys! Just because you can do magic now doesn't mean that you can't walk down a simple flight of stairs! Sit down and eat your dinner," she said furiously.

Emma, Ginny, Hermione and Tonks all sat at the end of the table, whispering and giggling. Harry and Ron sat closer to the other end of the table with Sirius and Lupin, deep in conversation. Fred and George took their seats in the middle of the table next to Ron.

"You might as well show him, he will find out soon enough," Mr. Weasley said as he sat down at the table.

Sirius put a copy of the Daily Prophet down in front of Harry with one of the many headlines defaming him and Dumbledore. "So this is what they've been saying about me?" Harry said through clenched teeth.

"It's hard for people to believe you, Harry. People have been feeling safe for so long that they don't want to believe the truth. That's why Dumbledore started the Order up again. To keep you safe, and keep the secret weapon safe," said Sirius before he was interrupted by Mrs. Weasley.

"Stop! He's just a boy. At this rate he might as well join the Order," she shouted, snatching up the paper from in front of Harry.

"I want to fight. I was the one who fought him off last year, why am I too young to fight now?" Harry asked with passion. Sirius gave him a proud smirk.

"That's enough, now everyone eat their dinner," Mrs. Weasley said as she sat down next to her husband.


	3. Chapter 3: Trains of Thought

After dinner everyone split off into their respective bedrooms. Emma changed into her pajamas and flopped down onto her bed waiting for Hermione to get back from brushing her teeth. Hermione walked into the room, shut the door and put her toothbrush on the table next to her bed. She walked over to Emma's bed and sat down. She hadn't forgotten what she noticed in the hallway between Emma and George, so while she got ready for bed she rehearsed how she was going to go about interviewing her best friend.

"You were awfully quiet at dinner," said Hermione carefully.

"Was I? Everyone was after Mrs. Weasley shut Harry and Sirius down like that," Emma said dismissively. Although Hermione was her closest friend and confidant, Emma didn't want to let on how she was feeling. But how _was_ she feeling? Surely she was upset about the most recent letter from Seamus, but Hermione knew all about that. So why was she being so close to the vest?

Hermione interrupted her train of thought, "Ok, but then what was up with you and George in the hall before dinner?" she asked, intently looking at Emma's face to catch any glimpse of a reaction.

Emma kept her face stoic. In her family, keeping your poker face on at all times was something that was learned at a relatively young age. "What are you talking about?" she asked. Could that be why she was feeling the way she was feeling?

Hermione ignored Emma's response and continued with her previously planned out line of questioning. "And before, you two were talking for a seemingly long time," She paused to see if Emma would give anything away, but nothing. She continued, "Is there something going on between you two?"

Emma looked at her friend for a moment. She went to say something almost immediately, but knew better than that. _If I respond to quickly, Hermione would definitely know that something is up._ But wait, was something up? She was feeling different than she had all summer. She wasn't sure exactly what this new feeling was, but she wasn't feeling the same sadness and frustration she had been. Well, those feelings were still there, but covered by something else. Was there something going on with George? He had stayed back to check on her, which wasn't all _that_ strange; but then again, she didn't usually spend alone time with George; he was usually accompanied by Fred. Maybe he was just trying to be nice. But he was sitting rather close, and he seemed to be a little awkward around her, especially when he went to touch her hand. And when they were out in the hall, Fred _definitely_ noticed that George wasn't acting like himself; and who better to know how George was feeling than his twin brother and best friend. So was George actually… flirting with her? And if he was, what did that mean? Did he actually like her or was he just trying to boost her confidence since her boyfriend wasn't performing very well in that area? And what about Seamus? She loved him, didn't she? Which means she couldn't possibly be starting to have feelings for someone else, could she?

The train of logic kept whirring around in her head until it started to loop back on itself. She felt like it had been the longest time since Hermione had asked her the question, but in reality it had only been about half a minute. She felt her brain start to spiral out of control and her heart began to beat faster. She took a second to close her eyes and take a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again she saw her best friend looking at her, concerned.

"Are you ok?" asked Hermione, who was well tuned in to when her friend was having a panic attack.

Emma paused for a beat before speaking, "Yea, sorry. I'm just exhausted and…" she paused to formulated her lie of omission, "I got another letter from Seamus today. George just stayed behind to ask me if I was ok. I guess he had seen the letter when him and Fred had just apparated into the room behind me. It was just lying on the bed. I'm just having a hard time dealing with Seamus right now. He's driving me nuts. I guess I just wanted to try to… I mean Harry just got here and I don't really want him to know that he's the reason that Seamus and I are fighting."

"What did he say this time?" Hermione asked.

"The letter is over there. You can read it if you want," Emma said pointing to the crumpled piece of paper in the fireplace.

"Threw it in the fire this time, huh?" Hermione said, starting to smile a little. "So what did George say to you?" she asked.

"He just offered to sneak Seamus some Wizard Wheezes if he continues to be an arse," Emma said.

Hermione started laughing, and Emma joined in.


	4. Chapter 4: Heartbreaking News

The days before start of term went by quicker than anyone had wanted them to. Each day consisted of the same routine: clean the house and rid it of dark magic, dinner, then bed. Before bed each night the adults had their Order meeting while Emma and her friends sat upstairs enjoying the lack of homework while they could. The twins tinkered with their Wizard Wheezes while Harry and Ron discussed the upcoming Quidditch trials, which Ron was going to try out for this coming year. The girls sat off in the corner talking about the upcoming school year, which turned into gossiping about boys. Hermione was still writing letters to Victor Krum and Ginny had started dating a Ravenclaw in her year. Emma, as always, avoided talking about her own complicated love life. Hermione and Ginny, of course, knew that she and Seamus were fighting, and exactly what about, but at this point in the summer, there wasn't any point in talking about it as if it were news. She avoided thinking about all of it all together really. She had more than enough things to worry about without focusing on Seamus… and George.

A lull came to everyone's conversations as the night went on. Mrs. Weasley opened the door with the upstairs sitting room and poked her head in. "Alright everyone, time for bed. We have to get to get up early to catch the train tomorrow. Now I don't want to hear your groaning, off to bed with the lot of you." She stood at the door until everyone made their ways to their separate bedrooms. Fred and George apparated away (as usual), and Harry and Ron bid goodnight to the girls and went off to brush their teeth. Emma and the girls began to go off to their rooms when Mrs. Weasley stopped Emma. "Oh dear, one moment. I forgot to give this to you earlier," she pulled a letter out of her apron and handed it to Emma, "Your father gave this to Arthur at the Ministry today to give to you. It's from your grandmother. Now off to bed, sleep tight girls." She turned around and descended the stairs.

Emma brushed her teeth, got into her pj's and got into bed. She looked at the letter on her bedside table. Her grandmother's tiny cursive script was scrawled on the front with the Muggle-friendly address for the Ministry, as well as a stamp of Queen Elizabeth II in the corner. Her mother was a Muggle-born. Her Grandma Mary and Grandpa Joe lived a modest life in the English countryside where they owned a classic Muggle joke shop. Although it came as a shock that their daughter was a witch, they couldn't have been prouder. Grandpa Joe was especially excited, hoping that maybe his daughters magic would someday be able to give something "extra" the items in his joke shop (however, due to the whole secrecy thing, he had to give up that dream). Growing up, Emma always had a closer relationship with her maternal grandparents rather than her paternal ones. Her father came from a pure-blood family, much like the Malfoys; and actually, The Malfoys were a close family friend of hers (much to Emma's chagrin). So, when her pureblood, Slytherin father fell for a Muggle-born Ravenclaw girl, the family was, shall we say, not very pleased. They never expressed this much, having "too much class to actually express any feelings" as her father always said, but Emma could always sense that there was a rift in the family because of it. Also, in comparison to her fun-loving Muggle grandparents with their joke shop and love for quality family time, there was no way that her dad's parents stuffy house could measure up.

Emma hadn't seen her beloved grandparents in longer than she liked. She used to spend a month every summer with them, but with the Quidditch World Cup last summer, and being with the Order this summer, it had been two years since she had seen them. She always looked forward to their letters, though; and occasionally she would also get care packages, so it was almost like seeing them. She smiled and picked up the letter to read it.

 _Dear Emma,_

 _Oh, how I miss you my little sunflower. I hope your summer has been going well. Your father told me that you've been spending the holiday with your school friends. I'm sure that they're more fun than us old folks; although your grandfather disagrees with me on the "being old" part. You know him, always saying "I'm just as young at heart as all those kids these days." I know that you will be going off to school soon, so please send me a letter when you get there so I can send you the annual "back to school" care package. And please tell me whether your friends prefer snickerdoodle or Turkish Delight. I remember how stressful this upcoming year was for your brother and his friends, so I know a homemade treat will make things at least a little more cheerful._

 _Unfortunately, this letter is not all about sweets. I hate that I'm having to tell you this through a letter, but I know that your school friend probably does not have a telephone. Your grandfather has gone into the hospital. Last week he had a heart attack while he was stocking the shelves at the shop. I've told him a dozen times that there's a reason we hired a local boy to help in with the heavy lifting, but you know how stubborn he is. He survived the initial attack, but he is still pretty weak. The doctors say that most men of his age that have heart attacks don't survive the first few hours, so they are hopeful that he will make a recovery. He has mostly been asleep for the past week, but he when he last woke he told me to send you his love. He said to tell you exactly this: "Keep your spirits up my little sunflower. If I'm half the fighter that you are, I will be recovered in no time. Kick school's arse this year. Love you."_

 _I will keep you updated on his condition as it improves, and I know that it will improve._

 _Like your grandfather said, "kick school's arse" and I love you._

 _Hugs and kisses,_

 _Your favorite grandmother_

Emma stared at the letter. She was trying her best not to cry because as her grandfather said, she was a fighter. If she wasn't strong than he couldn't get better. Although she was smiling at his message to "kick arse", she couldn't help but feel an empty hole of worry over him. She folded the letter and put it back into the envelope and into the notebook on her bedside table before shutting off the lamp. She didn't often pray, but that night she did; just a quick little prayer before she drifted off to a very un-restful sleep.


	5. Chapter 5: Back Through the Platform

In the craziness of the morning, as everyone got their trunks packed and into the cars, Emma didn't have much time to talk to anyone, which was good because she didn't particularly feel much like talking. She had gotten little to no sleep the night before with all that was going through her mind. She was having the usual pre-school year worries of classes and homework, but also of her grandfather. She also was not particularly looking forward to encountering Seamus, especially with Harry right there with her. She packed the last of her belongings in her trunk and went downstairs. The kitchen was empty except for Sirius and George; everyone else was still bustling about. She didn't greet them at first, instead, she went right for the coffee and bacon. Even with a good night's sleep, she isn't able to hold a proper conversation without at least tea first. That morning called for something stronger than tea to get her through.

She took a sip from her cup then turned around, "Okay, good morning." she said.

Sirius laughed and said to George, "That girl has her priorities in the morning. Never mind us." He smiled at Emma before standing up. "I think I'll go say goodbye to my godson before you head off to the train," he said before leaving Emma and George alone in the kitchen.

"Didn't sleep very well?" George said, sipping his own coffee.

"Not particularly," Emma replied as she jumped up to sit on the counter. She grabbed a piece of bacon and ate it before continuing to speak, "Just the normal pre-term stress."

"Oh please, like you have anything to worry about. You're brilliant, okay maybe not as brilliant as Hermione, but you're smarter than me," he smirked as he saw Ron coming down the stairs, "and you're definitely smarter than Ron."

"Hey! I heard that!" Ron said as he entered the kitchen. He walked over to the plate of bacon and grabbed a few slices.

"Oh I didn't see you there Ickle-Ronnikens," George smirked and winked at Emma, who started laughing, "Oh sorry, my bad, it's _Prefect-_ Ronnikens now."

"Oh, will you shut up about that already."

Just then Mrs. Weasley entered the kitchen. "Oh, that's where you all are. Ron, get to the car, you're a Prefect now you have to set an example and being late to the train does not accomplish that."

"Oh, Mom-"

""I don't want to hear if Ronald, get to the car," Ron left the room and Mrs. Weasley continued quickly, "Emma get off the counter, and both of you get out to the car, everyone's waiting for you." She turned and hurried out of the room.

Emma jumped down and shouted as Mrs. Weasley left the room, "Sorry Mrs. Weasley!" She headed to the door.

"After you," George said, stepping aside to let Emma through.

After a short car ride, they arrived at Kings Cross. They all went through the platform and boarded the train. They all went their separate ways, Hermione and Ron to find their fellow prefects, Ginny went off to find her friends in her year, and Fred and George to find Lee Jordan, so it was just Harry and Emma left. They found an empty compartment and sat opposite each other.

"If you want to go find Seamus I'll be fine here," Harry said breaking the silence.

"Oh I'll just see him later," Emma said, trying not to let on that she didn't really want to see him just then.

"There's something going on between you two isn't there?" Harry asked. Emma looked out the window at the countryside as they left London. "Emma, you're my best friend, I can tell when there's something going on with you."

Emma sighed and looked back at Harry. "Okay fine, no we aren't exactly on the best of terms right now. We've been fighting almost constantly all summer. I didn't really want to bother you with it cause you've got other things on your mind right now."

"Emma, you don't have to keep me in the dark about everything. I'm not as fragile as everyone thinks. I would actually welcome the distraction if you wanted to talk about it."

"It's fine, really Harry. I don't really want to talk about it. I'd rather hear about your summer. I too would like a distraction," she smiled at her friend as he launched into the tales of his mostly boring summer.

"So how was being at headquarters all summer?" Harry asked.

"Oh, it wasn't too bad. Although… well how do I say this," Emma paused for a moment. "Ron and Hermione were almost unbearable," Harry laughed. "No really! When they weren't bickering they were just awkwardly skirting around each other. It would just be SOOO much easier if they would just acknowledge their feelings for each other. I mean, they just make things so awkward! And when I try to bring it up to Hermione she just avoids eye contact and mumbles something about needing to study for OWLs."

They continued to talk and laugh as the train wound through the hills and fields of Scotland. They were about three hours into the journey when Emma needed to stretch her legs. She got up to walk to the compartment at the back of the train where the bathroom was located. As she passed through a seemingly empty compartment, she bumped into the back of a tall, blonde boy.

The boy turned around about to say something harsh when his face softened into an unattractive smirk. "Oh hey there MacKenzie, missed you this summer. Did you have fun spending time with those blood traitors?"

"Draco would you just give it a rest? You're not nearly as charming as you think you are." Emma said as she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Now will you please let me through so I can get to the bathroom?"

"Oh come on, you know you can't resist me." Malfoy took a step closer, causing Emma to back up towards the train wall, "Besides, you know how happy our families would be if we ended up together," he kept inching towards her, forcing her closer to the wall of the train until her back was flat up against it.

"Oh you know me so well Draco," Emma said with an air of sarcasm that Malfoy didn't catch. He leaned his forearm against the wall, causing his body to be only a few inches from hers. She leaned closely for a moment, catching him off guard, then slipped to the side while sweeping his arm off the wall, causing him to fall into the wall face first. She stood with her arms crossed and smirked as he turned around.

"You never learn do you Draco? I've said it before and I'll say it again: I wouldn't go out with you even if you were the last person on this Earth. Now excuse me." She turned and left him standing there in the middle of the compartment seething and holding his forehead.


	6. Chapter 6: A Fight in the Common Room

After arriving at school, they all went to the Great Hall for the welcome feast. Emma had said a quick, but strained hello to Seamus before sitting down between Hermione and Ginny. She tried her best to avoid making too much conversation with Harry in front of Seamus, at least until she could talk to him again and see if she could make him calm down about the whole thing. That was not a conversation that would go down well at dinner in front of everyone. After the feast, a new Professor got up to make a speech. Emma wasn't quite paying attention, as she was too focused on trying to formulate what she was going to say to Seamus once they got to the common room. According to Hermione, as she was filled in on the way back to the common room, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was named Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge and she was from the Ministry, which meant that the government was trying to have some sort of control over Hogwarts this year.

They stepped through the secret entrance to Gryffindor Tower as Harry spoke up, "Something that no doubt has to do with my outrageous lies," he said bitterly.

They stopped for a moment in the short hallway before entering the common room.

"Don't worry mate, I'm sure at least everyone in Gryffindor is going to stand behind you," Ron said, patting him on the shoulder reassuringly, but not sounding all that convinced.

"Yea, they all are your friends, they know you and they know that you aren't a liar," Emma said, putting her arm through Harry's. "Now common, you'll see." Emma somewhat dragged him into the common room and towards their usual corner of arm chairs. The loud sound of conversations quieted as they entered. Some people stopped their conversations completely to stare at Harry, Emma, Ron and Hermione as they entered. Harry stopped short and stared at the room, half defiantly and half exhausted. Hermione stepped closer to Harry protectively and Emma gave Harry's arm a reassuring squeeze.

"Hello, everyone have a good summer?" Harry said trying to keep an even tone.

Dean, who was sitting a few feet away next to Seamus piped up first. "Yea I did Harry, how about you?" he asked tentatively.

Emma looked at Dean, then at Seamus who had an angry look on his face. She dropped her arm from Harry's as Seamus started to speak.

"Oh, probably just peachy, right Harry? Well my summer wasn't." Seamus stood up and walked towards Harry.

Emma stepped towards him, "Seamus, don't. Please," she said quietly, trying to prevent him from going on the rant that she had been listening to all summer.

Seamus ignored her and continued to speak. "You see, me mum almost wouldn't let me come back this year."

"Why's that?" Harry asked, knowing what the answer would be, but not caring. Emma looked at him and saw that same look in his eye, that same defiant look that he gets right before Snape gives him a detention.

She looked to Seamus, who had almost the same look, except she had never seen him with that face before. "Hmm, let's see, because of you. All this stuff in the Daily Prophet about your lies. Did you ever stop to think about the effect that this story you're telling would have on others?"

"It's not a lie." Harry's voice started to get louder. "Voldemort really did come back to life that night and he killed Cedric," the common room went completely silent at the mention of Voldemort. "I saw him, with my own two eyes. But if you don't want to listen to me, fine. Just listen to the Daily Prophet like your stupid mother."

"Don't you dare talk about my mother like that!" Seamus shouted at Harry.

Emma stepped in between them. "Both of you, will you just stop," she looked from Harry to Seamus. Harry, still seething with anger towards Seamus, looked at her for a moment then looked around the entire common room to find them staring. Seamus just looked at her with anger and betrayal. Harry started toward the stairs that led to the dormitories, Ron following after him. Emma looked at Seamus again, whose anger, unlike Harry's, did not soften when Emma stepped in. You could hear Harry snap again at Ron, telling him not to follow and to just leave him alone.

"Of course you stand up for him." Seamus spit at Emma.

"Seamus please, not in front of everyone. Can we just step outside to talk about this?" Emma said quietly, trying to get him to quiet down as well. Everyone was still silent. She didn't have to look around to know that the entire common room was staring at the two of them. She could feel their eyes on her.

"So we can talk about what? So you can just tell me that there's nothing going on between you two-" Seamus said, still shouting

"There isn't! Seamus please, just keep your voice down-" she said trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"I'm not an idiot Emma! I see the way you two look at each other-"

"Seamus you're being ridiculous-" she said, getting more annoyed.

"Oh I'm ridiculous? How about the way you've been following him around since our first year, hanging on his every work like a little groupie-"

"That's it!" Emma shouted, cutting him off before he could finish his last word. He had officially gone too far. "I am sick and tired of trying to defend myself to you. It's insulting! You're supposed to love me and all you do is cause me pain. This needs to stop!" Emma took a shaky breath. She felt the anger coursing through her as Seamus stared at her with disbelief. She took a brief glance around the room. Ron, who had just come down the stairs again looked at her blankly, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Hermione look at her with sympathy. She could feel the hot tears coming from behind her eyes and took another breath, trying to prevent them from coming.

"Well then you know what? Fine! I'm done. WE'RE done!"

"GOOD!" Emma shouted back at him. She reached under her long hair to unhook the clasp at the back of her neck. She let the locket Seamus had given her for her birthday last year pool in her hand before chucking it at him, hitting him square in the forehead. She turned sharply on her heel and stormed back to the portrait hole. She felt the hot tears start to stream down her face as she climbed through the portrait hole, thanking the stars that she was able to hold them off long enough to exit the room. There was no was she was going to give Seamus the satisfaction of crying in front of him.

Emma walked down an abandoned corridor and finally sank down against a wall, sobbing. She heard footsteps approach her and looked up, expecting to see Hermione. Instead, she was greeted by the blurry outline of a tall, red-headed figure. She blinked away her tears to see that it was Ron. He slid down the wall and sat next to her.

Ron must have guessed that he wasn't who Emma expected, cause he said, "I know you probably would've wanted Hermione to check on you, but I told her to go try to talk sense into Harry. She's much better at talking sense into people. Not that I'm good at this… but I do have a sister."

Maybe it was just the rush of emotion and hormones running through her system at the moment, but Emma had never felt so touched by something Ron had said before. They had never really been that close, but the fact that Ron, who was always uncomfortable with anything resembling emotions, would at least TRY to comfort her meant the world. More tears streamed down her face as she tried to give a weak smile. She hooked her arm in Ron's and leaned her head on his shoulder. She let the tears continue to fall and after a few minute the sobs slowed, so she was finally able to squeeze out a few words, "Thanks, Ron."

"You're welcome, Emma," he said, pausing a moment before continuing to speak. "I am a little confused though, what exactly happened back there?"

Emma gave him the shortest version of the story possible. She didn't feel like talking about it more than necessary.

"That slick git! I could curse him!" Ron said angrily. Emma was immediately reminded of the time he tried the same thing during their second year and ended up puking up slugs for almost two days. She started laughing. "What?" Ron asked confused, yet obviously relieved that she had stopped crying.

"I don't want a repeat of the slugs incident, but thanks Ron. I appreciate it." She smiled and gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek. Ron reddened, as he always did. "Come on, we should get back to the common room before we get in trouble." They both stood up and Emma straightened her uniform. "How do I look? Do I look like I've been crying?" she asked as she wiped her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Uhhhhh…" Ron stammered, "You look about the same as you always do?" He said, hoping that was the right answer.

Emma laughed again. "Thanks for the lie Ronald."

Ron smiled awkwardly before Emma grabbed his arm to continue back to the common room.


	7. Chapter 7: The Weekend

Once classes began, it didn't take long for everyone in Gryffindor to forget about Emma and Seamus' very public breakup, especially the 5th years. They had always gotten a lot of work from some professors, mainly Professor Snape and Professor Binns, but this year all of the teachers were loading them with work. Each night, Emma, Ron, Harry and Hermione spent late hours at the tables in the Gryffindor Common Room, finishing essays and memorizing dates and facts. Before they knew it, it was October.

But no matter how hard Emma tried to simply focus on her work, she had other things on her mind. Even though it had been a few weeks since the breakup, Seamus was still being unbearable. Night after night, she felt Seamus glaring at her as she sat with Harry, and despite her protestations, Harry had figured out that he was the reason behind their breakup. He tried to apologize, but she refused to talk about it. Actually, she refused to talk in general most of the time. It wasn't just the breakup that was on Emma's mind, however.

She hadn't gotten any news about her grandfather since the first week of school. As instructed, Emma sent a letter to her grandmother when she had first arrived at Hogwarts, and as promised, she had received a basket of homemade baked goods in return. With the basket came a letter, but it was short and didn't really give her much information. She wrote her parents to see if they knew anything, but no luck; They also didn't know anything. They just wrote back saying that she should focus her energy on studying because that's what her grandfather would want. So that's exactly what she did. But at a certain point, she could no longer pretend that she was "just stressed out from the school work"; she had spiraled into an almost depression.

One Friday afternoon before dinner, as Emma, Hermione, Ron and Harry were sitting in the common room finishing their latest assignment for Defense Against the Dark Arts so they wouldn't have to worry about it over the weekend (their Herbology class had gotten cancelled due to a torrential downpour of rain that flooded the greenhouses), Emma noticed that Seamus was staring at her again.

Ron slammed his book shut. "I'm so over this class! She isn't teaching us anything. Every class she just has us copy the book over and over again. I'm starting to get hand cramps! What do muggles call it, Hermione?"

"Carpal tunnel. And you aren't getting carpal tunnel, Ronald. You're a wizard. You aren't susceptible to muggle ailments." Hermione said, slightly annoyed. She looked over at Emma, who was quietly continuing to copy the assigned passage for the fourth time. "Are you alright, Emma?" she asked, noticing Seamus looking their direction.

Emma put her quill down and closed her parchment in her book. "Yea I'm fine, Hermione." She looked over her shoulder then looked back at her friends, all looking at her with concern. "Let's go down to dinner, I'm starved." This was a lie of course. She wasn't really hungry that often anymore, but she welcomed the distraction that dinner usually provided for her.

They went down to the Great Hall and walked over to the Gryffindor table to sit next to George, Fred, and Ginny. The golden platters that always magically filled with food were still empty; which was probably for the best since Fred and George were playing a game of gobstones, so there was a foul smelling goo all over the table. Just as they sat down, Fred had gotten a point, so George got a face-full of goo. Everyone started to laugh, including Emma, who hadn't had a good laugh in what seemed like a very long time. After a few minutes, other students started entering the Hall, so the boys cleaned up their game so dinner could be served.

Everyone loaded their plates up like normal, making sure to get at least a little bit of everything. Emma put a small spoonful of mashed potatoes and a chicken breast on her plate and began nibbling at them.

"Is that really all you're gonna eat MacKenzie?" Fred asked between mouthfuls of pot pie.

"Yea, now that you mention it, I haven't really seen you eat much over the past few weeks. You feeling alright?" George asked.

"I'm eating the same amount as I always eat," Emma said defensively.

"Yea right, you usually give Ron here a run for his money food wise. It's kind of impressive actually that you can eat as much as you do and still look that good." George said.

Emma blushed. "I'm just not that hungry today I guess," she mumbled into her food before taking a bigger bite of her chicken. _Hopefully, no one noticed that comment about me looking good… or my reaction to it_ , she thought to herself as she chewed.

"But you just said upstairs that you were starved-" Ron said before Hermione kicked him from under the table. "Ouch! What was that for Hermione?"

"Sorry, foot slipped," Hermione said before taking another helping of roasted veggies from the platter in front of her. Emma looked over at her and silently thanked her for shutting Ron up. Although Emma hasn't really opened up to Hermione about how she had been feeling lately, she still stood up for her. Emma ate the rest of her dinner and even took an extra helping of dessert so her friends would stop worrying about her eating habits. Stuffed, everyone went back up to the common room. Everyone, except Emma, sat by the fire in the overstuffed armchairs.

"Who wants to play a game of exploding snap?" Ron asked.

"I'm in," Ginny said, followed by a course of agreement from everyone.

"I think I'm just going to finish my Defense Against the Dark Arts-" Emma started to say, but George interrupted her.

"Oh no you aren't," he said getting up. "You've been working WAY too much lately, it's sickening really." He pushed her over to the couch Hermione was sitting on and forced her to sit down, "Besides, it's the weekend and we have Quidditch tryouts tomorrow, so have some fun. Ronnikens will be there."

"But I won't," Harry said sullenly. Harry had gotten detention from Professor Umbridge for his latest outbreak in class about He Who Must Not Be Named.

After a few long games of exploding snap, they all went to bed. The next morning, Emma woke up early to get breakfast and an early start on her homework. For once, she was actually hungry. Once she had let her guard down last night, she actually started to have fun for the first time in weeks. She walked down the spiral staircase from her dormitory, through the portrait hole, and down to the Great Hall. Since it was early, there were only a few people actually in there, and those were mostly professors. She sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table closest to the faculty table and the platter in front of her instantly filled with scones, muffins, and crumpets. She grabbed a scone and a muffin then filled her goblet with some Earl Grey tea.

She ate in silence until an owl landed on the table next to her carrying a few letters and the Daily Prophet. Emma untied the mail from the owl's leg and fed it a bit of her scone and tea, then the owl flew off. She looked at the first page of the newspaper and noticed the headline was yet another article defaming Harry and Dumbledore, so she set it aside while rolling her eyes. She picked up the two letters, one from her brother and on from her grandmother. She decided to open the one from her brother first. Emma has always lived in the shadow of her 5 years older brother, not unlike Ron and his older siblings. He got 10 Outstanding OWLs and 6 high-level scores on his NEWTs while at school and went on to become a prominent healer at St. Mungo's Hospital. She opened the letter and read:

 _Dear Emma,_

 _If I remember correctly, you will be in your 5th year at Hogwarts, so you should be studying hard for your upcoming OWL exams. If you're even half as smart as I am, I know you'll do just fine. But don't feel too bad, not everyone can get 12 like I did._

 _Just remember to keep your head down, and if you need me too I can send you all my old revisions (I still have them all)._

 _Hope all is well. Have you heard from Grandmother recently? I do hope that we hear some news soon. I've written offering some of my medical expertise, but I haven't heard back yet._

 _Love,_

 _James_

She folded the letter and stuffed it into the envelope. Of course, he was writing her about OWLs; as if there already wasn't pressure enough in general, now he was reminding her that there's no way she can ever live up to him. I mean, she was smart, but there was absolutely NO way she was getting and Outstanding on her potions OWL. It's no secret that Professor Snape hated everyone except Slytherin, especially Gryffindor. Her brother had been in Ravenclaw, so that is probably the only reason he was able to manage to do that well in that exam.

She put the letter in her bag and opened the second one from her grandmother.

 _Dearest Emma,_

 _I hope your first month of school has been going well. Sorry I haven't kept you updated on your grandfather's condition. I've been at the hospital with him every day since he went in. I was hoping to be able to write you with some news, but unfortunately, there has been no change. He still hasn't woken up (except for once about a week ago, but only for a moment). The doctor says he doesn't want to give any false hope, but it does look promising that he will get better, at least in my opinion. They said he probably wouldn't be able to hold on this long, and he has, so I'm hopeful._

 _Your brother wrote to me last week offering some of his wizard expertise on the subject. Would that work? I thought magic folk weren't susceptible to normal ailments, so would they even have anything that worked?_

 _Miss you and love you dearly,_

 _Grandma_

Emma folded the letter. _Unfortunately, James was probably giving you false hope Grandma,_ she thought as she frowned at the letter. She carefully tucked the letter in her bag and resolved to answer her, later on, today. She could drop the letter off at the Owlery on the way to watch Quidditch tryouts.

Determined to not let the news these letters brought ruin her day, she got up from the table and made her way to the library.


	8. Chapter 8: Keepers and Quills

Emma stayed in the library writing essays, revising and color coding her notes and practicing wand movements until well into the afternoon. It wasn't until after 2 o'clock that she realized she had been in the library for nearly 7 hours and forgotten to eat lunch. Too fried to bother sneaking to the kitchens to get some food, she packed her bag and went back to Gryffindor Tower. As she climbed through the portrait hole, she was greeted by an uncharacteristic silence for a Saturday afternoon; the only people in the common room were Hermione and Ginny, and they were both knitting.

Emma set her bag on the floor and sat in the overstuffed armchair across from Ginny. "Did we start a knitting club?" she asked.

"No. We -" Ginny shot Hermione a look as she started to speak, "OK, I started a club, remember?" Hermione continued. "It's called S.P.E.W. It stands for Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. I'm knitting hats to free the house elves that work for the school. Ginny was so kind to help me."

"I just like to knit," Ginny said quickly as if to defend herself.

"Oh right, S.P.E.W." Emma said, remembering suddenly about Hermione's quest for house elves' equal rights. "Well, I like to knit too, so I'll help. Let me just go put my bag away and get my knitting needles. But, I'm not making hats, I'm rubbish at them. So they get arm warmers." She walked up the spiral staircase to the dormitory. She couldn't help but think that Hermione wasn't exactly concerned with how the house elves felt about being free.

After a few hours of knitting and several hats (and arm warmers) later, it was time for dinner. The girls went downstairs to meet with Harry, Ron and the twins in the Great Hall. Since Emma had skipped lunch, she was hungrier than normal. She loaded up her plate with sausage, veggies, and roasted potatoes and began to eat.

"Ah, there she is. Finally decided to eat something?" George teased.

"I forgot to eat lunch," Emma said dismissively; she was too focused on Ron, who wasn't eating anything. "You ok, Ron?" she asked gently.

Ron broke out of his trance, picked up his fork and started to push around the food on his plate. "Oh yea, totally fine," he said unconvincingly.

"Ron, you need to eat before trials. You need your strength," Hermione said, trying to be comforting.

They all quickly finished their dinners, skipped dessert and exited the Great Hall. Everyone, except Harry, headed towards the Quidditch pitch.

"Good luck, Ron," Harry said as he climbed the staircase to go to his detention with Professor Umbridge. Ron smiled weakly, then followed the group outside and down to the pitch.

Angelina Johnson, the Gryffindor quidditch captain, started the current team members and potential new keepers out by running some drills. Hermione, Ginny, and Emma climbed to the top of the stands to watch. After about 20 minutes of warm-up drills, the keeper tryouts began. The three chasers tried maneuver after maneuver trying to score on the potential keepers. Emma tried her best to pay attention and cheer on Ron, but she couldn't help but be distracted by Fred and George, who were both causing trouble across the field. Since they weren't using bludgers yet, the twins, who were the team's beaters, had nothing to do. So instead, they chased each other around the field, trying to knock each other off their Cleansweep Fives. Ginny and Emma giggled, but Hermione, however, was not amused.

Just as Ron was making his last, awkward yet effective, save, George whizzed by the stand where the girls all sat. He did a few loop then pretended to almost fall off his broom. Emma and Ginny's cheers for Ron quickly turned into laughter. Even Hermione couldn't help but laugh at the spectacle George was making of himself. Just then, Fred whizzed by, trying to top George's number of loops, but while doing so he was singing the school song. As Ginny and Hermione's attention moved to Fred, George made a face at Emma, who giggled in response and then winked. Or at least, Emma thought he winked. _But why would he be winking at me?_ she thought to herself as she smiled shyly. Just then, it had appeared that Angelina had had just about enough of the twins shenanigans.

"Will you two stop it! You're making a mockery out of my practice!" she shouted at them from across the field. They raced back over to her, just in time because Emma was starting to blush. They both hovered on either side of her.

"Sorry Madame captain, sir."

"Yes sorry, your excellency."

"Won't happen again."

"Probably going to happen again."

They alternated talking, quickly as usual. Angelina rolled her eyes, then sped off to finish up they last play.

It was getting dark, so the team and potential new team members all went to the locker room to change out of their Quidditch robes and store their brooms, then everyone went back to Gryffindor tower. Most of the team went up to their dormitories, but Ron, Emma, and Hermione decided to wait in the common room for Harry to get back. It was almost midnight when he finally appeared through the portrait hole.

"Oy, there you are Harry, how was detention? Was she horrible?" Ron asked.

Harry didn't look at him, "She just had me write lines for about 4 hours. It wasn't too bad." He rubbed the back of his left hand absent-mindedly but didn't say anything else. He sat down in a chair across from Ron as they filled him in on how Quidditch trials went. They only talked for about another quarter of an hour though before everyone was nearly falling asleep, so they all climbed the spiral staircases up to their respective dormitories to get ready for bed.


	9. Chapter 9: Late Night Fires

The moment Hermione finished brushing her teeth and putting on her pajamas, she climbed into bed and fell asleep. Emma on the other hand, couldn't sleep. She had managed to not think about her grandmother's letter all day, but now that she was alone with her thoughts, she couldn't help but worry. Since she couldn't sleep, she snuck out of bed quietly, grabbed her knitting and wand, and went downstairs. She was surprised to find that a fire was still roaring, so she sat down on the loveseat facing the fire and began to knit. Her hands were shaking, so after she dropped the 5th stitch in a row she set the needles down, picked up her wand, and tried to enchant them to knit on their own like Mrs. Weasley taught her to over the summer. The needles picked themselves up at once and continued knitting the scarf she was currently working on.

Emma stared into the dwindling fire. She brought her knees up to her chest, hugged them tightly, and rested her chin on her knees. Then, for the first time in a very long time, Emma found herself praying. Since Emma was so close with her muggle grandparents, she was often brought to church while she stayed with them. Wizards didn't often practice religion, and she wasn't really sure that she believed in it, but in this moment she found it comforting. She didn't really know how to pray exactly, so she just sat there, talking to an unseen entity, asking them to help her grandfather. She wasn't sure how long she was sitting there, but after awhile she heard some footsteps coming down one of the spiral staircases. She turned around but didn't see anyone, so she went back to staring at the fire.

The footsteps she heard had belonged to the twins. They had decided to sneak out and play a prank on Umbridge's office, again. They had almost made it down the stairs when they noticed Emma sitting in the common room.

"Is that Emma? What is she doing up?" Fred whispered.

"I'm not sure. Do you think she's ok?" George whispered, trying to mask his concern, but failing miserably.

"Why don't you go find out?" Fred whispered back, "This is your chance. Make your move." George looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Oh don't play dumb. I know you've had a crush on his since the beginning of this summer. She's not dating Seamus anymore. So what are you waiting for?"

George took a deep breath. He was about to protest when Fred pushed him down the last two steps and into the common room. He turned around and saw Fred climbing the stairs back up to the dormitory. He walked over to the couch Emma was sitting on and hesitatingly spoke, "Emma?" She looked up at him, startled, then relaxed when she saw who it was. "Sorry didn't mean to frighten you," he said, embarrassed.

"Oh no it's ok, I just thought I was alone down here," Emma said softly. She went back to looking at the fire. George hesitated for a moment, then sat down on Emma's right. The loveseat was big enough for two, but they still had to sit rather close to each other. Emma felt the warmth emanating from George's body and it sent chills down her spine. She was too afraid to look at him.

"Are you ok, Em?" he asked gently.

Emma looked at him out of the corner of her eye and saw the look of concern and kindness on his face. She felt a shiver run down her spine. She wasn't sure what had possessed her to do it, maybe it was the exhaustion from lack of sleep, or she was sick of pretending everything was ok, but she looked at him fully and shook her head.

"I could tell," he said slowly, "You've been looking… well, sad since…" She could he didn't want to outright say Seamus' name. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Once again, Emma didn't know what came over her, but she started telling George everything. About how she had been feeling about Seamus, the pressure from her family about OWLs, her grandfather; he listened quietly as she talked, and pretended not to notice when a few tears fell down her cheeks. "Sorry, I've just been holding onto all of that for a long time." George just looked at her patiently; she couldn't figure out what he was thinking. _That you're crazy probably,_ she thought. "Ugh, I'm so embarrassed. I can't believe I just told you all of that."

She looked down causing some of her hair to fall in her face and few more tears ran down her cheek. She was about to wipe them away when George slowly reached up, wiped the tears away and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. His hand lingered for a second by her ear, but then he quickly dropped it. Emma looked up and she could swear she saw him blush for a moment.

"You hardly ever talk about your family," he said quickly. "What are they like?"

She launched into the story of her parents and grandparents. She told him about living in her brother's academic shadow, her mother's muggle family, and her father's family background, she even told him about how the Malfoys were (unfortunately) family friends.

"So you're rich?" George asked when she was done

"Yes."

"And no one knows this?" George asked in disbelief.

"No, it's never really come up," Emma paused, thinking. "Can you not say anything to anyone? I don't really want anyone knowing about my dad… or Draco. Not yet anyway." She looked down, embarrassed.

"No problem. Your secret is safe with me Em," he smiled at her.

They both sat there, looking at each other for a moment. An awkward silence fell and they both blushed. "It's late," Emma said finally, "I should probably go to bed." She got up and went to collect her knitting when she realized that it had continued to knit the entire time they were talking. She waved her wand again and the needles fell still. "Eh, I'll come get that in the morning," she said as she put her wand in her dressing robe pocket. "Goodnight George. And… thanks for listening. I feel much better now." She leaned over (George was still sitting) and kissed him on the cheek, then walked toward the spiral staircase that led to her dormitory.

"Emma, wait," George was standing now and walking over to where Emma was standing.

Before she could fully turn around he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him. He stood there for a moment, looking down at her, still holding her hand. He took his other hand, put it at the back of her neck entwined in her hair, and slowly brought his lips to hers and kissed her ever so lightly. He paused for a moment, his forehead pressed against hers.

Her mind was racing. _Was this really happening?_ she asked herself. If she admitted it to it, she had day-dreamed that this would happen, but now that it actually was, she didn't know what to think. _You think too much,_ she said to herself, then she brought up her hands and rested them on his chest as she leaned into him and kissed him again. He wrapped his other arm around her waist, his hand pressing into the small of her back. They stood there, kissing with increasing fervency for a minute or two before they broke apart again.

"Good night Em," George said quietly, with a small smile before ascending the spiral staircase.


	10. Chapter 10: The Transfiguration Corridor

Emma woke up late the next morning. Despite how tired she was when she finally got to bed last night, she had a hard time falling asleep. She kept thinking what happened between her and George, replaying it over and over again in her head. By the time she woke up, she wasn't really sure if it had been a dream or not. It was about 10:30 am when she had finally gotten ready for the day and made it down to the Great Hall. Judging by the fullness of the Great Hall, everyone had gotten a lazy Sunday morning start.

Emma found Hermione and Ginny sitting across from eachother at the far end of Gryffindor table and sat down, choosing the vacant spot next to Hermione. She grabbed a scone and some tea and was about to take her first bite when she noticed Fred and George sitting a few feet down the table. Before she could look away, George looked over and they locked eyes. He smiled at her, causing her to blush and look away. Ginny, who noticed this interaction, looked at Emma curiously. Emma saw the look she was receiving and avoided Ginny's gaze, focusing on her scone instead. Ginny looked over at Fred, who winked at her knowingly.

"Wait, Hermione, what time is it?" Emma said quickly to prevent Ginny from asking any questions.

"Almost 11 am why?" Hermione asked.

"Shoot!" Emma said standing up, "I'm late!" she grabbed her scone and wrapped it in her napkin.

"For what?" Ginny asked with a hint of suspicion.

"Uhhh… I'm supposed to be meeting Professor Flitwick to get some help with charms," she said quickly thinking of a lie.

"You're brilliant at charms, why do you need help?" George asked, but he didn't get an answer before Emma quickly ran out of the Great Hall.

She hurried up a few flights of stairs and found herself in the transfiguration hallway. She heard the sound of running footsteps behind her

"Hey, Em wait up," George said slightly out of breath as he finally caught up to her, "hang on, I thought you said you were going to see Flitwick, not McGonagall."

Emma kept walking, "Did I say Flitwick, I meant Professor McGonagall," she said dismissively, "Sorry George, I really can't talk. I'm going to be-"

"You aren't avoiding me because of the kiss are you?" he asked rather loudly than Emma would have liked.

She stopped short and turned around, shushing him. She looked around the main corridor to see if anyone else was there. She heard some voices coming from around the corner that sounded like teachers, so she pulled him into a narrow corridor off the main one.

"I'm not avoiding you, I just know what you're going to say already," Emma paused, looking at his confused face, so she continued, "That last night was a mistake, we were just tired and got caught up in the moment, and that we would be better off staying friends. I get it, I just didn't think we really needed to talk about it and that I would save us the embarrassment, ok?" she said all of this rather quickly.

"Is that how you feel?" George asked.

She hadn't expected this response. She didn't know how to answer. _No,_ she said to herself, but she couldn't make herself say anything out loud. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could manage to form words George pulled her towards him and kissed her. Any thoughts running through her mind instantly vanished as instinct took over. She found her arms traveling up to wrap around his neck, pulling herself closer and forcing her to stand on her tip toes. Their passion increased and suddenly she was being pressed against the wall of the corridor. His hands explored her waistline. She felt his hands brush against the small gap of skin showing between her shirt hem and jean waistband, causing a shiver to run down her spine and causing her to let out a small gasp.

George pulled away quickly apologizing, thinking that perhaps he had gone past Emma's comfort zone. She pulled him a little closer to her, giggling slightly, "Oh no, it's just your hands are a little cold."

He smiled with relief and chuckled. "Sorry," he said as he tightened his arms around her waist.

Emma sighed happily as she cuddled closely into his warm chest. It wasn't just his hands that were cold, the hallway was as well. "So…" she said slowly, not entirely sure what to say.

"What were you were saying about us being better off staying as friends?" he asked teasingly.

She blushed and looked down for a moment.

He reached up, lifted her chin up to look at him, then swept some of her long hair behind her ear. "I might as well admit, I've actually liked you for a while now. Since the beginning of summer…" he trailed off nervously.

Emma smiled. "So I wasn't crazy. I had thought..." she paused, "but then I figured you wouldn't actually be interested."

"So where do we go from here?" he asked.

Emma froze. She didn't think that far. Sure, she wanted to see where this would go, but it was so soon after Seamus and she was sure that Ron would totally freak out.

George must have seen the look on her face and seemed to know what she was thinking about. "You're thinking about Seamus aren't you?" he asked. Emma opened her mouth, unsure what to say. "You aren't over him are you?" he asked, his face falling slightly.

"Oh I am," Emma said quickly. She smiled slightly at the relieved look on his face. "I just- how do I put this- what if we realize that this won't work out? I mean, Ron is DEFINITELY going to freak out, I mean, I'm one of his best friends and you're his brother. And, it hasn't been that long since I broke up with Seamus, and while I'm completely over it, it's clear he isn't."

"And what if we quickly realize that this isn't going to work and then we have to publicly deal with a possibly ruined friendship?" he finished her thought.

Emma nodded.

"Well, what if we didn't tell anybody? Until we figure out what this is, anyway."

"Really?" she thought about it for a moment, "Actually, that's not a bad idea. Ok, let's give it a shot," she said smiling. George beamed at her. She giggled and leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. "We should probably get back to the common room, though. I think Ginny was starting to get suspicious at breakfast this morning. And if we stand here any longer like this, were bound to get caught by someone."

"Yea, I expect you're right," he said, but he didn't let her go, "but first.." he kissed her again in such a way that she went weak at the knees. Then he released her and they walked back to Gryffindor Tower hand in hand, only letting their hand fall apart just before they stepped through the secret entrance to the common room.


	11. Chapter 11: Evening Post

About a week later, Emma was sitting with her friends in the Great Hall eating dinner. She sat next to George, trying to keep her cool, but desperately wishing there was no one else around so they could actually show some affection towards each other. In the past week, they've only been able to sneak to see each other at night once everyone else had gone to bed, but there was only so many nights that she could stay up that late and still get her school work done. Suddenly a Tawny owl swooped down and dropped a letter in her lap. She noticed the perfect cursive script at once as her grandmother's and she tensed.

Ron, who was sitting across from her noticed that she had gone white, "What's wrong? You look as if you've seen a boggart or something," he said still chewing.

"It's a letter from my grandmother," Emma said staring at the letter too afraid to open it. Ron looked back at her confused, probably wondering why a letter from a grandmother would be something terrifying. George reached under the table and placed his hand on her leg in an attempt to comfort her while still not blowing their cover. She felt a warmth spread through her and then took a breath before continuing to speak, "Ok so have I ever told you guys about my muggle grandparents?" she asked. Ron shook his head, but Hermione nodded.

"Yea," Hermione said, "You usually go and visit them over the Christmas holidays. They have that joke shop."

"Yea, them," Emma said nodding, "Well, before term started, my grandfather had a heart attack," Hermione gasped and Harry looked at her with concern.

"What's a heart attack?" Ron asked. Hermione quickly explained it to him so that Emma could continue, and when she did the rest of the Weasley's faces matched the concern that was on Hermione's.

"Well, last week my grandma wrote me that he still hasn't woken up and that the doctors weren't hopeful…" Emma trailed off.

"You don't know that this is a bad-news letter," Harry said hopefully, "It could be good news."

"Harry's right," Hermione said gently, "You won't know until you open it."

George gave Emma's knee a reassuring squeeze as she shakily opened the letter. She scanned the letter, not recognizing the handwriting. It was shaky and she had a hard time working out what was written. She stared at it hard then realized whose handwriting it was; it was her grandfather's. It was messier than normal, but it was his. She breathed out a sigh of relief and a few tears welled up in the corner of her eye.

"Is he..?" Ginny started to ask tentatively.

"He's ok. It's from him. I can barely make out what it says, but it's his handwriting," Emma laughed and wiped the tear from her eye. "Hold on there's a note from my grandma at the bottom." Emma quietly read the note at the bottom and laughed, "Stubborn old man. My grandma told him he shouldn't waste his energy, that she could just take dictation, but he insisted on writing me himself. He's pulled through. He's going to need a lot of rehab, and he's going to need to be in a wheelchair for the foreseeable future, but he's ok."

"Oh, that's such a relief. I'm glad he's ok, Emma," Hermione said reaching her hand across the table and giving her hand a squeeze.

"Yea, I'm glad he's ok, but why didn't you tell us?" Harry asked gently.

"I'm not really sure," Emma said looking down. "I guess I was afraid that if I said anything I would jinx it or something. And I didn't want you guys walking on eggshells around me or constantly asking if I'm ok." She folded the letter and began eating again

"We're your friends, Emma. It's our job to be here for you. Next time tell us so we at least know WHY we're worrying about you," Ron said.

"Tactful, Ronald" Hermione said with annoyance.

"You guys were worried about me?" Emma asked with surprise.

"You weren't eating-" Ron said.

"Or sleeping," Hermione added.

"But wait, if this is why you've been acting off lately, what changed last week?" Ginny asked.

Emma dropped her fork and George instinctively moved his hand, which was still on Emma's leg, away. She picked her fork up again and continued eating, pretending not to know what Ginny was talking about.

Ginny pressed on, "You've been in a much better mood since last weekend, but you only just got the news that your grandfather is ok…" Ginny was clearly suspicious.

George, thinking on his feet, quickly changed the subject, "Harry, don't you have detention in a few minutes?" Harry had gotten yet another detention with Umbridge, who had just been named High Inquisitor, which basically means that the Ministry is giving her more power at Hogwarts.

"Yea, I do," Harry said, getting up, "I'll see you guys in the common room later."

Later that evening Emma, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the common room waiting for Harry to get back from his detention. Emma was sitting at one of the tables, working on her Divination homework, while Ron and Hermione were sitting in the overstuffed chairs by the fire. Hermione was knitting more hats for the S.P.E.W while her and Ron were bickering yet again about the uselessness of the club. Emma rolled her eyes and try to ignore them as she read the same passage about death omens for the third time, trying to figure out exactly what it meant. George snuck up behind her and squeezed her shoulders, causing her to jump. She turned around and smacked him in the stomach.

"Ooof!" he said, doubling over.

"Oh, I didn't hit you that hard. And you startled me so serves you right," she said indignantly.

He pulled up a chair next to her and sat facing the wrong way, folding his arms on the back of the chair, "Remind me not to get on your bad side," he said with a smirk, "So, I was thinking," he lowered his voice to a whisper, "I haven't taken you on a proper date yet."

Emma put down her quill, "No you haven't, you're slacking on this whole secret dating thing," she whispered teasingly.

"Hey now, be nice, I was waiting until you got word about your grandfather being ok. I knew that you would be a little distracted until you knew he was ok."

"Oh," she said, "Well now I feel a little guilty."

"Yea, that was the point," he said mischievously.

She pushed his shoulder, "Jerk," she said, pretending to be mad but she couldn't help laughing. "So what did you have in mind?"

"Surprise. Just meet me in the Entrance Hall Friday at 6:30 pm," he said, getting up and pushing the chair back into the table.

"That's tomorrow, not giving me a lot of heads-up are you?" she said with a smirk.

"Nope. Good night," he winked then climbed up the spiral staircase leading to his dormitory.

The common room slowly emptied out until only Ron, Hermione and Emma were left. She had finished her homework about an hour ago, so she was now sitting by the fire playing chess with Ron. Finally, Harry entered through the portrait hole looking furious, but also a little pale.

"There you are Harry, we were getting worried. It's nearly midnight," Ron said as one of Emma's knights dragged his last pawn off the board.

"She kept me there for hours, writing lines over and over again," He sank into the chair next to Hermione, "I tried to tell her how late it was and that I hadn't completed any of my homework, but she just gave me MORE lines," he said trying to keep his voice steady.

"You can copy my Divination homework, Harry. Then I'll help you with everything else at lunch," Emma said. She looked over at Hermione, expecting a disapproving look (she hated cheating) but instead she was looking at Harry's hand, which was resting on the arm of the chair.

"Harry, your hand!" Hermione exclaimed. On Harry's left hand the words 'I must not tell lies' were written, except it looked more like they were carved there. He tried to cover it with his sleeve but Hermione grabbed his hand and inspected it. "You have to report this, Harry. This isn't a normal punishment, it's torture!"

"Look, it's not worth it Hermione. Umbridge has too much power now that she's High Inquisitor. I'm fine, really," he said, but Hermione wasn't really listening at that point. She was too fired up.

"I have had it with that woman. She's not teaching us how to defend ourselves, she's making our lives hell with all of these new rules, and now she's torturing students! It's time we do something," she said.

Ron, who was surprised by her outburst, looked at her with admiration. He shook his head then opened his mouth to speak, "But what CAN we do, Hermione? She basically is the Ministry of Magic."

Hermione thought for a moment, then got that glimmer in her eye that means she's had an idea. "We start a club. A Defense Against the Dark Arts club, with Harry as our teacher. If she isn't going to teach us how to defend ourselves, then we need to teach ourselves."

Harry opened his mouth in protest, "Hermione, I can't possibly teach people Defense Against the Dark Arts-"

"Why not, Harry?" Ron piped up, "You've escaped You Know Who four times now."

"Yea but that was mainly luck," Harry said dismissively, "And the first time I was a baby so that hardly counts."

"Harry," Emma said standing up and walking over to him. She sat on the arm of his chair and looked him directly in the face. "It wasn't purely luck. Ok, the first time was, but every time after that was you. YOU figured out that the Philosopher's Stone was hidden in the school, YOU figured out that the Chamber of Secrets was in Myrtle's bathroom, and YOU were the one that won the Triwizard Tournament," Harry glared at her; he hated being reminded of the tournament. "Don't you glare at me," she said sternly, then continues more softly putting her hand on his shoulder, "Harry, you're more brave and brilliant than you care to admit. You know more about DADA based on pure instinct than anyone I know. I would feel a lot safer if were capable of half of what you are."

Harry blushed then looked at Ron and Hermione seeing if they had anything to say.

"What she said," Ron said simply. Hermione nodded in agreement.

Harry paused and gritted his teeth, "Fine, I'll do it."


	12. Chapter 12: First Dates

The last lesson before the weekend droned on slower than usual. Professor Binns, their ghost History of Magic teacher, was always boring, but even more so when Emma had her date to look forward to. She sat in the back row, looking out the window mentally planning what she was going to wear and wondering what George could possibly have planned when the bell finally rang. The 5th year Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students lazily packed up their stuff, some of them still waking up, and left the classroom and went in the directions of their respective common rooms.

When they get back to the common room, Emma heads straight upstairs to change out of her robes into an outfit more appropriate for a date. She threw on her indigo wrap dress and looked at herself in the floor length mirror by the door. The dress showed a little more skin than it used to, which made sense seeing as she had gone up a bra size and grown about an inch over the summer, so she put on some tights and threw on a loose cardigan and looked in the mirror again. "Perfect," she said to herself out loud. She checked the time and realized she still had about 30 minutes before she had to meet George downstairs. She looked at her hair, which she usually kept long and straight, and decided to try something different with it. She fished her wand out of her school bag and waved it above her head, muttering the hair curling spell she had learned about in _Witch Weekly._ To her surprise, it actually worked. She laced up her combat boots then descended the spiral staircase to head down to the Entrance Hall.

"What are you all dressed up for?" Ginny asked as she walked toward the portrait hole.

"Uhh, I have a date," Emma sad, deciding that the truth was a better way to go.

"Oh! Is it with that 6th year Hufflepuff that was checking you out in the library the other day?" Hermione asked excitedly, "He was really cute," she added.

"Yea, it is," Emma lied, "But I'm going to be late, catch you all later!" she said quickly and hurried out of the common room. As she made her was down the moving staircases to the Entrance Hall she found that she had butterflies in her stomach. She was actually nervous. _I don't know why you're nervous,_ she told herself, _you've already kissed him, this is just a date._ She entered the Entrance Hall and found George leaning against the wall next to the front castle door. The second he saw her he straightened up and flattened his hair. He was nervous, too.

She walked over to him and smiled, "Hey," she said kind of awkwardly.

"Hey," George replied. He checked around to see if there were any teachers near before pulling out his wand and waving it, causing a single flower to appear on the end of it. He plucked it and handed it to her before returning his wand to his pocket.

"How'd you do that?" she asked impressed, smelling the flower.

"Professor Flitwick taught me. I told him I had to impress a girl. Although, when he did it he made a whole bouquet appear," he said shrugging his shoulders.

"You told Professor Flitwick you had a date and needed to impress a girl?" Emma asked laughing.

"Yup!" he said, obviously proud of himself, "Now come with me," he said taking her hand and leading her back up the stairs. He led her to the 5th floor and behind a giant statue of Gregory the Smarmy. He pushed in a loose tile on the floor and a small opening in the base of the statue opened up.

"Ok, this isn't the least bit sketchy," she said teasingly. He gently tickled her rib, causing her to squirm. "Ok, ok, sorry. I'll stop teasing," she lied, laughing. She crouched down and climbed through the small opening and found herself in an underground chamber. The ceiling was lit with floating twinkly lights and the floor was covered in a few blankets and pillows that served as seating. In the middle of the floor was a small picnic basket. She turned around and found that George had climbed down behind her and closed the small opening.

"Do you like it?" he asked rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"It's perfect," she said smiling. She moved closer to him and put her hands on his chest to steady herself as she leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. He wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her, kind of rocking her side to side. "Hi," she said giggling.

"Hi," he said in almost a whisper. "You know, I didn't tell you before but you look really… well, wow." He looked at her smiling gently. She chewed on her lip absentmindedly as she looked up into his kind eyes. "Are you nervous?" he whispered.

"What?"

"When you're nervous or thinking really hard about something you do this cute thing where you bite your lip. I don't think you even really know you're doing it, but every time you do it just makes me want to kiss you," he said trailing off.

She bit her lip again, this time consciously.

"Well now you're just doing it on purpose," he said with feigned annoyance. She nodded and smiled mischievously. He kissed her forehead. "Are you hungry?"

She nodded, so they sat down on the blanket and pillows. They talked and laughed as they ate nearly everything in the picnic basket. When they were finished he moved the basket out of the way and scooted closer to her. "So I'm assuming you snuck down to the kitchens for all of that?" she asked.

"Yea, the house elves down there actually love visitors. I guess they get kind of lonely," he said shrugging.

"Yea I have noticed that when I go down to visit…" she trailed off.

"Wait, you breaking the rules and sneaking down to the kitchens?" George said mockingly.

"Oh shut up," she said, pushing him on the shoulder.

He overdramatically fell over, trying to pull her with him in the process. He failed, and as he propped himself back up on his hand he notices that a few strands of hair that had fallen into her face. "Your hair really likes to get in your face doesn't it?" he joked.

"Yea. I really should start pinning it back," she said, unsuccessfully trying to blow it out of her face.

"But then I wouldn't have an excuse to do this," he went to tuck her hair behind her ear then intertwined his fingers in it at the nape of her neck, pulling her in for a gentle kiss.

A chill went down her spine, "You definitely don't need an excuse to do that," she breathed and kissed him again. He tightened his grip in her hair, deepening the kiss. They stayed like this for several minutes, the passion of their kisses increasing. His hand left the nape of her neck and traveled down her shoulder, brushing against the skin exposed by her falling sweater. She sighed quietly at the feel of his warm hand on her skin and shrugged allowing the sweater to fall off her shoulders completely. She wrapped her now-bare arms around his neck as she felt his tongue gently part her lips. After another few minutes, they broke apart, breathing heavily.

He ran his fingers down her arms slowly, causing the little hairs to stand up, "God, you're making it really hard to act like a gentleman right now," he whispered breathlessly.

"What do you mean?" she whispered back.

"Well," he said slowly, his face reddening slightly out of embarrassment, "I don't want to take thing too quickly cause I really like you and I don't want to mess anything up," he said earnestly, "But that's really difficult when you look as sexy as you do right now."

Emma blushed. She didn't know what to say, she had never been told she was sexy before. She bit her lip nervously again, unintentionally.

"Especially when you do that," he said.

She stopped chewing her lip and paused for a moment before finally speaking, "I really like you, too," she said quietly, "Which is probably why I'm so nervous right now. I don't want to mess this up either," she admitted.

To her surprise, George smiled, "Look at us," he said taking both her hands in his, "We're a couple of regular saps," he said as he started to laugh.

Emma joined his laughter, "Oh my God we are. I usually make fun of those sappy couples, and now I AM one of those sappy couples."

"So we're a couple, eh?"

Her cheeks flushed as she stammered.

He pulled her into his chest for a hug, "I'm only joking," he laughed.

She craned her head up to look at him and furrowed her brow, which he promptly kissed.

"Don't think that just because we now sneak off to snog occasionally that I'm not going to try and drive you mad every once and awhile," he said with his usual mischievous grin. He checked his watch, "We should get back to the common room before we get caught."

So they packed up the picnic basket and snuck out of the secret chamber.


	13. Chapter 13: Hogsmeade

Emma climbed through the portrait hole unaccompanied by George, who had gone down to the kitchen first to return the picnic basket. When she entered she saw Harry and Ron sitting in the corner playing Wizard's Chess and Hermione and Ginny sitting by the fire. The second they saw her they sprang up.

"How was your date?" they exclaimed together as they dragged her over to where they had been sitting.

"Shhhh!" Emma hushed, seeing Seamus across the room with Dean out of the corner of her eye.

"Sorry," Hermione said, also noticing Seamus, "But really, how was it? What did you do?"

"It was fine," Emma replied casually.

"Fine?" Ginny probed, "You're positively glowing!"

Just then Fred walked into the common room, accompanied by George. He walked over to the girls, "And what are we gossiping about over here," Fred asked as both he and George sat down.

"Emma was telling us about her date," Ginny said casually, "Not that it's any of your business, nosy," she said sticking out her tongue.

Emma glanced over at George, whose face remained neutral.

"Ohhhhhh a date. Who's the lucky guy Emma?" Fred asked.

Based on his tone, there was no doubt that Fred knew exactly who her date was with.

"One of the 6th year Hufflepuffs," Emma said, hoping she wouldn't have to provide more detail.

"What's his name?" Fred asked, trying to catch her in a lie.

Emma glanced over at George, who was giving Fred some nasty side eye. She smirked, "Malcolm Preece," she said flatly.

Clearly, Fred hadn't expected her to have an answer that quickly. "Oy, the Hufflepuff chaser, you traitor!" he said feigning outrage, "Come on George, let's not associate ourselves with this traitor anymore."

"Hold on, Freddie. Maybe she didn't have a very good time on her date, or maybe it was a recon date. Tell us, Emma, how do our chances look this year?" George asked leaning forward, acting interested.

 _Two can play this game,_ Emma thought to herself, "Eh it was alright. Kind of a lame date overall, I probably won't see him again," she said dismissively. "And he's not a very good kisser either," she added quickly.

George scowled and got up, "Come on Fred, we don't wanna hear this little girl gossip, do we?"

"Not at all, Georgie," Fred said, also standing up. The girls all laughed as they walked off.

"Ok, now that they're gone, how was your date, really? Tell us everything," Ginny said.

Emma told them all about the date, sparing the more obvious details that would let them know it was actually George, like the secret passageway.

"Oh, that's so romantic!" Hermione gushed.

"And was he actually a bad kisser or were you just saying that to get Fred and George to go away?" Ginny asked.

Emma blushed. "No he was a very good kisser," she said quietly. The girls giggled and Emma continued, "But I don't think I'm going to see him again."

"Why not? He sounds perfect!" Hermione said with some surprise.

Emma didn't answer right away. _Because I didn't see him in the first place and if I keep outright lying things might get out of hand,_ she thought to herself. She glanced over to where George was currently sitting, which also happened to be close to where Seamus was.

Ginny noticed where Emma was looking, or where she thought Emma was looking, and asked cautiously, "It's because of Seamus isn't it?"

"What?" Emma said confused but realized what Ginny thought she had seen and decided to go with it, "Oh, ummm… Yea. It's not that I'm still hung up on him or anything, I just think it'll be better to be by myself for awhile," she said looking down at her hands. She hated lying to them like this, but things were going well so far with George and she didn't want to jinx it.

Over the next week, Emma and Hermione had been quietly spreading the word about the DADA club. They had decided to set the first interest meeting for the first trip to Hogsmeade, which was the next saturday, which based on the general response, they weren't expecting many people to show up. To their surprise, when the day came there were around 25 people waiting in the Hog's Head Tavern for Harry, Emma, Hermione, and Ron when they had arrived. Included in that number were Ginny, Fred, George, Neville, Luna Lovegood, Dean and to Emma's severe surprise, Seamus. Harry walked, well more was pushed by Hermione, to the front of the crowd, who all looked at him in silence.

Hermione spoke first, "Thank you all for coming, it means a lot that you all want to learn as much as we do," she looked nervously at Harry then continued, "I'm sure you all have loads of questions about what we're gonna learn, so maybe we can open it up?"

Seamus piped up first, "Wouldn't the first question be 'who's going to teach us'?"

"Harry is," Emma said sharply.

There were hushed whispers throughout the crowd.

Harry stood up, "Look, if you all just came here to whisper about me behind my back you can shove off," he said cooly.

Emma tugged on his shirt sleeve to get his attention. He looked down at her and saw the familiar "calm down" look that she often gave him.

Hermione stood and spoke next, "Maybe it would be helpful if Harry shared a little bit about what he knows, and how he's gone up against," she paused and gritted her teeth before saying, "Voldemort before." It was the first time Emma had heard anyone but Harry or Dumbledore You Know Who's name before.

Harry looked around the crowd, then back at Hermione who gave him a reassuring nod before he started to speak. Even though he hated talking about it, he told everyone about the night that Voldemort came back to life and how he killed Cedric. He also told them about the other two encounters he had had at school before then, "I don't care what the Ministry is saying, but Voldemort is back, and he's dangerous, "he said firmly, "And so are his followers. We need to be able to protect ourselves, and clearly, Hogwarts isn't doing that anymore, so we need to take it into our own hands," he finished.

At this point, Hermione passed around a sheet of paper on which everyone signed their names. Everyone slowly exited the pub in pairs or groups of three, Emma deciding to leave with Fred and George, leaving Harry, Ron, and Hermione behind.

They started walking towards the main stretch of shops. They had just reached Honeydukes when they notice Lee Jordan through the shop window.

"Oh, there's Lee. I'll see you two later," Fred said, strolling into the sweets shop.

"So Fred definitely knows about us, right?" Emma said the second he had walked away.

"Yea. Sorry. I can't really lie to him; he sees right through it," George said as they turned around to walk towards the Shrieking Shack, which was the most private place in Hogsmeade. Everyone believes that it's the most haunted place in Britain, but Emma knows that's only because Professor Lupin had his transformations there during his years at Hogwarts.

"It's ok," she said pausing, "So what does he think?" She was curious to see how one of their friends would react to the news of them being… whatever they were.

They had reached the fence that laid on the boundary to the Shack's property.

George faced Emma, leaning on the fence. "You mean what does he think of us?" he asked. Emma nodded. "Actually, if I'm telling the truth, the entire thing was his idea."

Emma straightened up, now more curious about what George was saying.

"Remember that night I found you in the common room?" he continued. Emma nodded. "Well, Fred and I were originally sneaking out to play a prank on ol' Filch and Umbridge, but then we saw you sitting there and… well, he convinced me to check up on you. Apparently, I hadn't been as good at hiding the fact that I like you as I thought I had," he said as he looked at his feet and kicked at the ground nervously.

Emma smiled and took a step forward, resting her hand on top of his on the fence.

He looked up and smiled. "So, if I'm not mistaken, someone's birthday is coming up," he said. Emma's birthday, which was in 6 days, was the day before Halloween, so it usually went by without any fuss.

"You remembered?" she asked astonished.

"Of course I remembered. What kind of-" he stopped short. They hadn't put a label on anything yet, on purpose. He continued, choosing his words carefully, "What kind of friend do you think I am?"

"Well to be fair, you never made any point to acknowledge it before now," she said teasingly. "Oh, please don't make a fuss," she said, noticing the smirk on his face that usually meant he was up to something.

"Me? Make a fuss? That's not at all in my character," he replied with a smirk. "Anyway, do you want your present now or on your birthday?"

"George!" she exclaimed. "You didn't have to get me anything," she said blushing.

He pulled a small box out of his coat pocket, not waiting for her decision.

She took the box from him, "You shouldn't have…" she said pulling the ribbon and taking the top off of the box, "Oh you really shouldn't have. George…" she was at a loss for words. In the box was a small silver hair comb. It was really simple, with just a few pearl beads glued to the base, and she could tell it was definitely vintage based on the slight tarnish, but it was just beautiful.

"Do you like it?" he asked tentatively.

"I love it," she whispered smiling, "But you really shouldn't have. You should save your mon-" She had started to say that he should save his money for his joke shop, but she was cut off. George had pulled her close and given her a very light kiss.

"Don't worry about it," he said softly, "I'm just glad you like it. And now you can keep your hair out of your face." He stepped away from her before someone could happen upon them and see their close embrace.

She smiled and tucked the box in her coat pocket before they strolled back to the main part of town.


	14. Chapter 14: Quidditch

Emma sat in the library a few days after the trip to Hogsmeade revising her notes for History of Magic. She was making a timeline of events in the life of Uric the Oddball when Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down at her table. She put down her quill and allowed the parchment to roll back up.

"So have you any luck finding a place to hold meetings yet?" Emma asked Harry in a hushed tone.

"Nothing, I've been searching the Marauder's Map for days trying to find a secret passageway or room that would work, but nothing," Harry said with a sigh.

"And I haven't found anything in _Hogwarts: A History_ that would be remotely helpful," Hermione said in a defeated tone.

"I'm sure we will be able to come up with something," Emma said hopefully.

Hermione looked at Emma and noticed the hair comb keeping her hair out of her face, "Oh Emma that hair comb is beautiful. Where did you get it?"

Emma touched the comb absent-mindedly, "Oh it was an early birthday present," she said smiling.

Just then George and Fred walked up to them and sat down. They look aggravated.

"What's going on?" Harry asked.

"Umbridge just disbanded all student groups. Including Quidditch!" Fred said angrily.

"You have to get special permission from her in order to continue running. Angelina has gone to her now to get permission for Gryffindor to keep practicing, but it's the principle of the thing," George continued.

"She must have found out about the DADA club," Ron said bitterly.

"Impossible," Hermione said quickly. "I jinxed the parchment. We would know if anyone who signed their name on that parchment spilled."

"Well, whether she found out or not, she's making our lives much more difficult," Emma said coolly.

"Well, I'm not going to let this stop us. Come on Harry, Let's go see if we can manage to find a meeting space. Ron, Emma, you in?" Hermione asked as she stood up.

"Yea, anything to avoid our History of Magic homework," Ron said standing up as well.

"I think I'm going to finish up my revisions. I'll meet you guys at dinner," Emma said.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione said their goodbyes then exited the library.

"George, want to go get some payback on Umbridge?" Fred asked.

"Nah, I should probably get some work done," George said.

"You know, Emma, you're turning him into a productive member of society. It's kinda disgusting actually," Fred said jokingly. "Alright, well I'll catch you later, then."

George scooted into the seat across from Emma then pulled a book out of his bag, opened it, and pretended to study. Emma smiled at him then unrolled the parchment to continue to working on her revisions. After a few minutes, George looked up at Emma, who was so focused on her work, she didn't notice him looking at her. He saw the comb in her hair, keeping it out of her face, and smiled. She absentmindedly bit her lip as she stared at the parchment, suddenly she looked up and saw George smiling at her.

"What?" she said giggling.

"Nothing, you're just cute when you're focused on something," George said getting up and moving around the table to sit next to her. She rolled her parchment up and shut her book. "Come on, put the homework away, let's get a little pre-dinner snog in," he whispered in her ear then slowly kissed her neck causing the hairs to bristle.

"George!" she whispered taken aback.

He smiled flirtatiously and she giggled in response, "What, no one ever comes around this back corner of the library," he whispered, kissing her again lightly on the cheek.

That weekend, since both Gryffindor and Slytherin had gotten special permission from Umbridge, the first Quidditch match of the season was to go on as scheduled. The morning of the match Ron, who was about to play his first game as the keeper, was an absolute wreck.

"You're going to do just fine, Ron," Hermione said comfortingly as she, Emma, Harry, and Ron walked down the Quidditch pitch.

"Yea," Emma agreed, "I've seen you at practice and you're going to be brilliant," she said deciding a little bit of fudging the truth wouldn't hurt.

Ron grumbled in response as they had just reached the Quidditch pitch.

"Good luck, boys," Emma said, giving both Harry and Ron a quick hug and kiss on the cheek, which seemed to cheer Ron up a bit, before she and Hermione went to meet Ginny in the stands.

As always, Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the match began, but not to a good start. The Slytherin's were holding signs that said 'Weasley is our king' and singing a song to the same effect; Ron was so nervous that he let a few goals in within the first few minutes of the match. Emma dug her binoculars out of her bag so she could see better and saw Harry high above the field searching for the snitch. She also saw a small figure that she deemed to be Malfoy hovering near him, no doubt mocking Harry terribly. All of a sudden a bludger sped towards Malfoy. She looked to see where it had come from and saw George hovering with his beaters club in hand having just hit the bludger. She smiled. George looked over to see her in the stands and winked mischievously. All of a sudden an eruption of applause came from the Gryffindor stands. Emma looked around and saw Harry holding the golden snitch; he had won the match.

Emma, Hermione, and Ginny ran onto the field to congratulate the team. Emma threw her arms around Harry and then Ron. "You both were brilliant! Well done," she exclaimed before hugging Fred and George. "And you," she said to George, "Nice aim with that bludger. Draco needs to be knocked down a few pegs." George beamed.

"Yes, yes, celebrate now," Malfoy drawled from behind Emma.

She whipped around quickly, "Oh buzz off Draco. No one is in the mood," she said with hostility.

Malfoy ignored her. "Thanks, King Weasley for almost letting us win the game there. Did you like our signs?" he said.

Ron didn't respond.

"I'm not surprised you weren't able to save any of those goals based on the state of your broom. I expect that's the best your blood traitor family could afford, though. Not entirely your fault, though. Maybe Saint Potter can lend you-"

"Draco, that's enough," Emma said sharply stepping forward as she grabbed Harry's forearm to prevent him from leaping at Malfoy.

"Oh and what exactly are you going to do MacKenzie?" Malfoy said pompously.

"Oh, I'm sure I could think of SOMETHING to write your father about. I'm sure Lucius would love to hear about how you're using your Prefect status to skip classes," she said crossing her arms looking satisfied.

Malfoy blanched slightly, but recovered quickly, "Like he would believe anything coming from one of Potter's sluts-" Malfoy was cut off by George, who had just leaped at him fists at the ready. Harry joined in as Ron stood back, not wanting to intervene and possibly get demoted from being Prefect. Fred, after receiving a pleading look from Emma, pulled both Harry and George off of Malfoy, but it was too late; Professor McGonagall had already seen the fight and was dragging the two boys off to her office.

"I hope you're happy," Emma spat at Malfoy through clenched teeth.

"They're the ones who attacked me," he replied as he pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"I'm still writing your father," she said, no longer caring if anyone figured out about their father's longtime friendship. She turned quickly on her heels and stormed towards the castle in a rage, Fred, Ron, Hermione and Ginny following behind her. They all figured she was heading back to the Gryffindor common room, but after the first set of stairs, she turned to go down the transfiguration corridor.

"Wait, Emma, where are you going? Common room is this way," Ron said with confusion.

Emma whipped around, "I know where the common room is, Ronald," she said sharply. She wasn't really sure who she was madder at, Malfoy or Harry and George. Ron looked back at her, his jaw slack with shock. She hadn't meant to yell at him, but she was just steaming mad. "Sorry, Ron. I'll catch up with you guys later," she said, trying to even her tone, before turning back around to head towards McGonagall's office.

Ron and Hermione both continued up the stairs to the common room to join in on the celebration, but Fred followed Emma down the transfiguration hallway, having to almost jog to keep up with her angry walk. "Maybe you should calm down a bit, I'm sure McGonagall is going to read them the riot act already so you don't have to-" he said before Emma cut him off.

"I am calm," Emma said in a tone that said the opposite.


	15. Chapter 15: Detentions and Decrees

She sat outside the door to the office with Fred in silence for about 20 minutes before Harry and George walked out.

"Can you believe it? A whole week of detention?" George said outraged.

"I can," Emma said flatly.

George and Harry turned around to see Emma standing behind them with her arms crossed and Fred behind her trying to give them a warning look.

"What were you two thinking?!" she screamed at them, causing them to jump a little. "I mean you," she said looking at Harry, "You're in trouble enough as it is. Umbridge is already on your case, giving you detentions every other week, and you go an attack a PREFECT? Are you stupid?"

"Malfoy was asking for it," Harry grumbled defiantly.

"Well of course he was, but he was trying to get a rise out of you to show that he's better than you and that you're just some hot head that can't be trusted, and you just proved him right. You've got to be smarter than this Harry," she said sternly, her arms still crossed. She then looked at George, who was being uncharacteristically quiet, her eyes still flaming with anger.

Fred took that as a cue to finally speak up, "Come on Harry, why don't I walk you up to the hospital wing to get that cut above your eye looked at," he said quickly grabbing Harry by the arm and walking in the other direction. Emma could hear Harry start to protest, but within a minute they were already around the corner. She stared at George for a moment waiting to see if he would speak.

"I couldn't let him talk about you like that. He was insulting my family, and then he said that about you and I snapped," George said quickly.

"I can stand up for myself," she said cooly.

"I didn't say-" he started to say, then thought for a moment, "I know you can stand up for yourself. You can actually be kind of terrifying… like right now," he said half smiling.

She glared at him.

"I'm sorry, Emma. I know it was stupid," he said stepping towards her and rubbing her upper arms in an attempt to get her to soften up.

She didn't back away, but she also didn't stop glaring at him.

"Come on, you know I can be a hot-head sometimes. It comes with the territory when you date a ginger," he said jokingly. He thought he saw a bit of a smile creep up on her face, but he wasn't sure.

"Well, maybe I shouldn't date gingers anymore," she said. His face fell, then she laughed. "I'm only joking."

A look of relief swept over his face and he hugged her. "You're evil," he said into her hair after a few moments.

"You didn't actually believe me did you?" she asked as she pulled away and looked up into his face.

He looked down embarrassed and said, "Well, a little bit yea, you were really mad."

"I'm still mad. But you aren't getting rid of me that easily," she said as her arms wrapped around his neck causing him to smile. "Just let me handle Draco next time, ok?"

"You got it, babe," he said, planting a soft kiss on her lips.

"Perhaps we shouldn't snog right in front of the Deputy Headmistresses office?" Emma whispered teasingly.

"Perhaps you're right. Our spot?" he whispered back.

Emma nodded and they walked to the 5th-floor statue of Gregory the Smarmy.

An hour or two later Emma was climbing the stairs to Gryffindor Tower by herself when she ran into Harry, who was just coming back from the hospital wing.

"Hey, where are you coming from?" Harry asked as they climbed the last staircase.  
"Uhhh…" Emma stammered.

Harry looked at her then noticed a small mark on her neck, which was a slowly forming hickey. He smirked. "You may want to let your hair down," he said.

She looked at him puzzled at first, then realized what he meant. She immediately pulled her hair out of the ponytail it was currently up in. "It's not what you think it is, I uhhhh…"

"Hey, I'm not asking any questions," he said nonchalantly.

They stepped through the portrait hole and found that the common room was packed. Emma and Harry found Hermione and Ron in their usual overstuffed chairs and joined them.

"Where have you two been?" Ron said.

"Emma took me to the hospital wing after I was done with McGonagall to get the cut over my eye looked at. She was fussing over it of course," Harry said dismissively.

Emma looked at him with her mouth open in shock then quickly closed it. _Why is he covering for me?_ she thought to herself.

They didn't question it, but Emma still wondered one, why Harry didn't say anything about her hickey and two, why he covered for her.

On Sunday morning, Emma woke up early and went downstairs to finish up some homework before breakfast. She expected to have the common room to herself, so she was surprised to see Harry sitting at one of the tables, staring at the Marauder's Map.

"Oh, Harry, I didn't expect to see anyone down here," she sat down across from him and opened her transfiguration textbook. She sat in silence for a moment, deciding whether or not to ask him why he had covered for her the night before.

Harry looked up, "What?" he asked sleepily.

She hesitated for a moment then spoke slowly, "Why did you-"

"Why did I say you were with me at the hospital wing yesterday when you weren't?" Harry interrupted as if he was able to read minds.

She nodded in reply.

"Well I figure you and George wouldn't be sneaking about if you wanted everyone to know," he said simply.

She opened her mouth in surprise, "I- what are you- how'd you know?"

Harry gestured at the map, "I saw you two sneaking around one night."

Emma clapped her hand to her forehead, "Of course, that damn map," she said feeling like an idiot.

Harry laughed, "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me, " he said smiling.

"Thanks, Harry. We're just not ready to tell anyone we're dating quite-"

"Wait, so you two are actually dating? I thought you were just sneaking around to snog," he said slightly surprised.

Emma opened her mouth in surprise and threw an eraser at him playfully, "What kind of girl do you think I am?" she said acting offended.

"What? No judgment," he said as he put his hands up defensively making her laugh. "So are you happy? Is he treating you well?" he asked.

"I am happy," she said smiling, "And yes, dad, he's treating me well," she laughed.

"Hey, you're one of the closest things I have to a sister, I've got to protect you," he said casually.

"Awwww, Harry," she got up, walked around the table and threw her arms around his neck tightly then kissed him on the cheek.

"Ugh, get off me Emma," Harry said struggling.

"Nope, not done yet," she laughed, still smothering him.

"Now what's going on down here," said a voice coming down the spiral staircase, Emma turned and saw it was George. She finally let go of Harry, who also turned around.

"No need to be jealous mate, she was trying to strangle me," Harry said, rubbing his neck dramatically.

Emma smacked Harry on the shoulder then looked at George, who was looking at her with confusion and mild concern.

"Yea, he knows," Emma said dismissively.

"Finally, someone else knows," Fred said relieved.

George walked over to Emma and saw the Marauder's Map open on the table and picked it up. He set it down and wrapped his arms around Emma from behind before asking "He saw us sneaking around on the map didn't he?"

Emma craned her neck sideways to look up at him and nodded.

George shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Ok, well now that Harry knows, can you two just tell everyone else?" Fred asked.

"Not yet," George said.

"At this point, we're just trying to see how long it takes for everyone to figure it out," Emma finished. "Besides,"

"It's kinda fun sneaking about," George continued. Emma giggled as he kissed her on the cheek.

"Blech," Fred said gagging, "I'm going to go down to breakfast before you two make me lose my appetite."

"Yea, me too," Harry said in agreement. "Mischief managed," he whispered to the parchment before sticking it in his pocket. Just then they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. George let Emma go and stepped away from her just in time for Hermione and Ron to come down the stairs.

"Good morning," Ron said yawning.

"Morning, Ron. We were just about to go down to breakfast, want to join us?" Emma said.

Ron and Hermione both nodded and they all went through the portrait hole and down to the Great Hall.

When they got to the entrance of the Great Hall they saw that another Educational Decree had been posted. It read:

"Educational decree no. 25

The High Inquisitor will henceforth have supreme authority over all punishments pertaining to the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry"

"This is ridiculous!" George exclaimed.

"She's taking over the whole school!" Fred said.

"Wait here's another one," Emma said, "Boys and Girls are not permitted to be within 6 inches of each other," she read aloud.

"Now that's just ridiculous," George said then him and Fred stepped on either side of Emma and squeezed her like they were making a sandwich.

Emma started laughing when all of a sudden they all sprung apart like magic. They turned all turned around to see Professor Umbridge standing there looking pinker than normal.

"6 inches," Umbridge said in a shrill voice. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Weasley, if you would please follow me."

"Which Mr. Weasley," Ron asked confused.

"Not you Ronald, you're older brothers. Come, follow me to my office, gentlemen," she said curtly and started walking. Harry, Fred, and George exchanged confused looks with Emma, Ron and Hermione then hurried after Umbridge.


	16. Chapter 16: Dumbledore's Army

_*****_ _*Warning: This chapter may be a little more risque than previous ones were_

About an hour later, Emma was walking back to the common room after breakfast alone. Ron had to go down to Quidditch practice and Hermione had decided to go down to the kitchens to bring some more of the hats she had made to the house elves. As she was climbing the stairs, she passed the DADA corridor where she ran into Harry, Fred, and George, who were looking positively livid.

"What happened?" Emma asked.

"We've been kicked off the Quidditch team," Harry said through clenched teeth.

"What? She can't do that!" Emma said outraged.

"She can. She reigns over all punishments now," Fred said.

"Apparently a week's detention wasn't enough," George said with fire in his eyes. Emma had never seen him this angry.

"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked suddenly.

"Uh... Down in the kitchens, why?" Emma asked confused.

"I'm gonna see if she can come up with any ideas for a meeting place for the DADA club. I want to have a meeting tonight," Harry said, his teeth still clenched.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Emma said tentatively, "You're already on Professor Umbridge's radar."

"I don't care anymore," Harry spat. Emma knew he wasn't mad at her, but she couldn't help feeling a little offended at the way he was snapping at her.

"I'll go down with you," Fred said, "I'm starving."

Emma looked at George, "Do you want to go get something to eat?" she asked carefully.

"No, I'm too mad to eat," he said bitterly. His arms were crossed and he was shaking with anger.

Emma waved to Harry and Fred who started to walk down the stairs to the kitchens. "Babe…" Emma said slowly, "Try to calm down." She placed a hand gently on his forearms, which were still crossed over his chest. He looked down at her, eyes still on fire. Normally, she would have probably smacked him for looking at her like this, but she took a deep breath and decided that it wouldn't help if BOTH of them acted like hot heads right now. "Come on," she said quietly and led George to their spot in the secret chamber beneath the statue of Gregory the Smarmy.

"Ok, now you can let it out," Emma said calmly. George let out a frustrated yell then stared at Emma. She moved around behind him and started rubbing his shoulders in an attempt to relax him. After about a minute she could feel the tension fade from his shoulders as he started to relax. He leaned back into her taking her arms and wrapping them around him. She rested her chin on his shoulder.

"I just can't believe I've been kicked off the team. And Fred too, he wasn't even INVOLVED in the fight. He actually broke it up," George said staring at the wall in front of him.

"I know," whispered Emma comfortingly in his ear. "I'm sorry. This really sucks." She kissed him gently on the neck. Although they were both sitting, he was still taller, so she couldn't reach his cheek from the angle she was currently at. Suddenly, George turned around to look at her. He wasn't quite smiling, but the anger from his eyes was gone. It had been replaced by something else, but something equally as intense. Before she knew it, George's lips were on hers kissing her hard. He grabbed her face between both of his hands as she felt his tongue parting her lips.

After a moment or two, Emma pulled away, breathless and surprised, "What was… You've never… wow." She was speechless. She had never been kissed like that before; with such raw passion.

"Good wow or moving-too-fast wow?" he asked. His hands fell way from her face and into her lap to hold hers.

"Good wow," she said in a whisper. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, kissing him as he had moments before. He put his hands on her hips and pulled her onto his lap. She sat straddling his torso as his hands started to explore the hem of her shirt. She let out a small gasp when she felt his hands brush against the skin of her back but he didn't move them like before. She ran her fingers through his hair with one hand and ran the other one down his shoulder to his upper arm. His hand continued to travel up her shirt and press into her lower back. His other hand swept the hair away from her neck has he started to kiss his way down her jaw to her neck and collarbone. She could feel her heart beating out of her chest. He nibbled her neck causing her to jump.

He brought his face close to hers again and whispered, "Someone's a little jumpy." He smiled and ran his fingers lightly up and down her spine creating a chill. She bit her lip and pushed him to the floor. Her hair cascaded down around them creating an almost cave around their faces. She kissed him slowly as she started fiddling with the buttons of her shirt. She didn't undo it completely; just enough to reveal a lacy pink bra. He looked at her in awe, "Damn," he whispered before rolling over so that he was on top of her and kissing her again.

A while later they broke apart, breathing heavily, "We should probably…" Emma said trying to catch her breath.

"Yea, we should probably-" George breathed in agreement. He looked down at her still-unbuttoned shirt and kissed her again, trailing kisses down to her chest. She moaned slightly. He stopped and groaned slightly in restraint before bringing his face back up to hers.

"Oh, sorry, that probably isn't helping," she said quickly buttoning her shirt. He rolled off of her and she laid next to him with her head on his chest. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and nuzzled his face in her hair. She giggled happily, closed her eyes and nuzzled closer into him.

Emma opened her eyes disoriented after what seemed like only a few minutes. She propped herself up on her elbow to look at George, who started stirring, "George, wake up, we fell asleep," Emma said, shaking him gently.

"Hmmmm," George mumbled as he opened his eyes, "Morning, beautiful," he said with a yawn.

Emma laughed, "It's not morning. Actually, what time is it?"

George looked at his watch, his eyes still half closed, "3:35 pm," he said nonchalantly. A brief second later he was fully awake. "3:35 pm," he said sitting up.

"I'm gonna say that people are definitely going to notice that we've been gone almost 5 hours," Emma said now sitting up as well.

"Yea, probably," George shrugged.

Just then, Emma felt something vibrating in her pocket. She pulled out a small golden coin. George also reached into his pocket and reached out a vibrating gold coin. "I guess they found a place to hold a meeting," Emma said excitedly. A few days after the meeting in Hogsmeade, Hermione had handed out little gold coins to everyone who had signed up to be a part of the DADA club so she could communicate when they would be meeting. The coin would vibrate and warm up when there was a message. She examined the coin for the spot where the serial number was. It gave today's date, a time, and the number 7.

George was examining his coin as well, "Ok so clearly the meeting is today at 4:00 pm, but what is the 7 for?" he wondered aloud.

"Maybe the 7th floor?" Emma mused.

"Well, only one way to find out," George answered standing up and reaching out his hand to pull Emma to her feet.

They carefully snuck out of the secret chamber and to the 7th floor where they saw Harry, Hermione, and Ron standing in front of a Barnabas the Barmy tapestry.

"So you guys found a place to meet?" Emma asked as she and George reached the spot where they were standing.

"Where have you two been?" Ron asked in an almost accusatory tone.

Thankfully, Harry answered Emma's question before she had to think of a response, "The Room of Requirement," Harry said.

"I can't believe I didn't think of it before," Hermione said obviously feeling stupid.

"Wait, so it actually exists?" asked George.

"And you found it?" Emma said with mild surprise.

"Well, Dobby helped actually," Harry admitted, "When I went down to the kitchens to find Hermione, Dobby gave us the idea and where the last known entrance to the Room was."

Just then, Neville, Ginny, Fred, and various other members started showing up in the hall, so Harry decided it was probably time to open the Room. Harry closed his eyes and stood to face the wall. After a minute, a door magically appeared. They all walked through the door and once everyone was in the door vanished.

"I'm glad everyone got the message," Harry said to the crowd of people that stood in the center of the empty room. "So, the first order of business..." Harry looked at Hermione for an answer.

"Name," she mouthed to him.

"Right, what should we call ourselves?" Harry asked the group.

Cho Chang, who Harry has had a crush on since last year, stepped forward and spoke, "Well, we could call ourselves the D.A. for Defense Army," she said quietly, smiling shyly at Harry.

Harry looked at her and returned the same shy smile, "I like it," he said.

Ginny, who spoke louder than Cho had, stepped forward as well, "D.A. could also stand for Dumbledore's Army," she said.

"It's perfect," Hermione said, writing the name on the top of the member list before sticking it up on a bulletin board that hung on the wall behind her.


	17. Chapter 17: Nightmares and Attacks

Meetings for Dumbledore's Army proceeded to take place over the course of the next few weeks. Harry was immensely impressed with everyone progress in the lessons. Before everyone knew it, it was the last meeting before the Christmas holidays.

"Alright everyone, that wraps up today' meeting. I'm really impressed with what you all have been able to accomplish over the past few weeks. Just remember, keep practicing and don't give up. Happy Christmas everyone," Harry said as people started to gather their bags from the corner of the room. There was a round of 'happy Christmas'-es as everyone left the room in strategic pairs or groups of 3. Emma stood talking to Hermione, Ron, and Harry when she noticed Cho Chang standing across the room, sadly looking at the picture of Cedric that hung on the bulletin board. She caught Harry looking at her as well.

"Go on, mate," Ron said encouragingly, "Go talk to her." He gave Harry a little push towards her then gestured to Hermione and Emma that they should leave.

Emma, Ron, and Hermione made their way back to the common room and picked out some of the best seats by the fire to wait for Harry. Emma sat on the floor in front of the fire and got out a pair of knitting needles and a ball of yarn out of her bag. She still had no idea what she was going to get George for Christmas, so she thought it would be best to have a scarf as backup. Ron and Hermione both pulled out some parchment to begin working on something. Ron was clearly working on potions homework based on the confused expression on his face, but Hermione didn't have any books out, so she couldn't have been working on homework.

"What are you working on Hermione?" Emma asked as she counted stitches.

"I'm writing a letter-" Hermione replied just as Harry walked in, "Oh, Harry! There you are!" she exclaimed, folding the piece of parchment and putting it on the table in front of her.

Ron waved him over to the chair Emma was leaning against and Harry sat down, "Tell us, how'd it go?" Ron asked excitedly.

Emma turned her head around to look at Harry, he looked embarrassed. She could tell that he was deciding on whether or not he should tell them.

Harry launched into the tale of how Cho was upset about Cedric, how she wondered whether he had known all of this defense, and how as they were talking a bit of mistletoe appeared above them out of nowhere.

Emma smirked, "That Room really does cater to every need," she said teasingly, nudging Harry's leg. He blushed.

"Well how was the kiss?" Ron asked.

"Good, I think. It was hard to tell, she was sort of crying," Harry said awkwardly; he clearly didn't like kissing and telling.

"That bad at it, were you?" Ron joked.

Emma threw her ball of yarn at Ron, hitting him in the face.

"I'm sure Harry is a more than satisfactory kisser, Ronald," Hermione said, "But she's clearly got a lot on her mind."

Emma motioned to Ron to give her back the yarn. He tossed it at her then looked at Hermione confused. Harry looked at her confused as well, so she continued.

"Well," Hermione said slowly carefully choosing her words, "Clearly she likes Harry, but she feels guilty since she used to date Cedric and he only just died. And Harry was there when Cedric died, which only adds another layer on top of it. So she feels sad over losing Cedric, happy because now she knows Harry likes her back, but also guilty about it."

"AND she's also got mounds of homework and Umbridge to worry about," Emma added.

"One person couldn't possibly feel all of that," Ron said aghast.

"Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon," Hermione snapped.

Emma started to laugh and Hermione joined her.

Ron looked at Harry, still with mild confusion, "Girls are crazy aren't they?" he asked. Harry nodded in agreement.

Hermione picked her parchment back up again and continues to write her letter.

"Who on earth are you writing that novel to anyway?" Ron asked as he packed his books back into his bag.

"Viktor," Hermione answered without looking at him.

Emma gave Hermione a smirk and Hermione smiled back. Ron rolled his eyes, swung his bag over his shoulder and climbed the stairs to the dormitory, closely followed by Harry. Within a few minutes the common room had cleared out except for Emma, who was still knitting.

Suddenly she heard a voice behind her, "Who's that for?"

She turned around; it was George. He sat down in the chair she was leaning her back on and lightly massaged her shoulders. She set the needles down next to her and leaned back on him closing her eyes.

"You're kind of tense," George said with surprise.

"Yea, getting thrown across a classroom with a disarming spell will do that," she said flatly. At the meeting today, she had been paired with George to practice dueling. She had cast a dancing feet spell on him, but when she let her guard down to laugh he cast a disarming spell at her. Except, he missed her wand hand due to the dancing so the spell hit her square in the chest and she was thrown backwards about five feet into the wall.

"Hey, you didn't expect me to go easy on you just cause you're my girlfriend did you?" he said teasingly. "Besides, you're the one who cast the dancing feet curse on me," he said defensively.

She laughed as she got up off the floor to sit in his lap, "Yea, that was pretty funny, you have to admit," she said still laughing. She stopped and looked at him; he tried to look unamused but she could see a smirk creeping up from the corner of his mouth.

"So," Emma said as she curled her legs up and nuzzled into George's chest, "I'm your girlfriend now, am I?"

He absentmindedly stroked the back of her hair as she leaned her head on his shoulder, "Oh, did I say that?" he asked, "Yea, I guess you are kinda my girlfriend."

"Kinda?" she asked.

"Well, we haven't really talked about it…" he trailed off.

"We're talking about it right now," she pointed out.

"Right," he paused and grabbed her hand with his free one, "So, be my girlfriend?" he asked, kissing the top of her hand.

"Hmmm, I don't know," she said jokingly before smiling and kissing him on the cheek, "Yes, I'll be your girlfriend."

She giggled before he grabbed the side of her face and kissed her gently. She leaned her forehead against his, closed her eyes and smiled. He went back to stroking her hair and she leaned her head on his shoulder. She stifled a yawn.

"Tired?" he asked lazily. His eyes were also drooping shut.

"A little. But I don't want to move. I could stay here forever," she said, closing her eyes and nuzzling closer into his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed, "Me too," he murmured into her hair before kissing the top of her head. They stayed like this for a while until they drifted off into a light sleep. About 30 minutes later however they were awoken by footsteps running down the stairs. Sleepily, Emma and George opened their eyes to find Neville running through the common room.

"Neville?" Emma said with a yawn but he was out the portrait hole before she got a response.

George stretched and yawned. "Was that Neville that just ran through here?" he said groggily.

"I think so," Emma said as she looked at the portrait hole, still confused. She looked back to George, who was stifling another yawn. She giggled, "You're cute when you're tired."

George smiled sleepily and pulled her in for a kiss.

Suddenly the portrait hole burst open again and through it climbed Professor McGonagall followed by Neville. Emma quickly jumped off George's lap at the sight of her.

"What are you two still doing up?" Professor McGonagall asked, but didn't wait for an answer, "Nevermind, you two stay here." she said before hurrying up the stairs to the boys dormitory. A few minutes later she hurried back down the stairs, followed by Harry, who looked very ill, and Ron, who didn't look much better than Harry did.

"Ms. MacKenzie, come here a moment," McGonagall said in a worried tone.

Emma walked over to McGonagall who ushered her to the side. "What is it Professor?" Emma asked worriedly.

"I need you to go and wake Ms. Weasley. And have Mr. Weasley go wake up his brother. Something has happened. I'm going to take Mr. Potter to Professor Dumbledore. Wait about 20 minutes then escort the Weasley's down there as well," McGonagall said in hushed tones.

"Professor, what's happened?" Emma asked carefully.

"Ms. MacKenzie, just do as-"

Emma interrupted her, "Please, Professor, if something has happened it would probably be best for us to know about it rather than sitting here and imagining something worse."

McGonagall looked at her sternly for a moment, then lowered her voice even further, "You might be right, Ms. Mackenzie," she took a deep breath before continuing, "We believe that Arthur Weasley may have been attacked, but we aren't sure. Please, keep everyone calm and don't say anything until we know more."

Emma nodded and did as she was told. Within five minutes, the Weasley family were all downstairs and sitting by the fire. Emma was sitting in between Ginny and George holding both of their hands, George's and her's hidden by her side.

"Emma, will you please just tell us what is going on?" Ginny asked in a shaky voice. Emma tightened her grip on Ginny's hand comfortingly then looked around the room. Her gaze settled on Ron, who decided to finally speak.

"Harry had a dream, well, more like a nightmare, really… and…" Ron started to say before trailing off and looking down.

Emma took a deep breath, "Professor McGonagall has reason to believe that, because of the dream Harry had, your father may have been… attacked," she said finally.

George's hand tightened around hers and Ginny buried her face in her hands as she started to cry. Emma put a comforting arm around Ginny's shoulders.

They all sat there for another 15 minutes before heading down to Dumbledore's office.


	18. Chapter 18: Christmas News

Emma got no sleep that night. After she escorted the Weasley's down to Professor Dumbledore's office she was sent back to the Gryffindor common room, despite her protests. Once she had gotten back to her room, she immediately woke up Hermione and told her what happened. They both sat up in the common room, not speaking until it was a reasonable hour to go find Professor McGonagall and find out what happened. They both walked through the cold hallways to the Transfiguration corridor where they found McGonagall's office door ajar. Hermione tentatively opened the door to find the Professor sitting at her desk, looking equally as tired as they did.

"Professor…" Hermione started tentatively.

Emma wasn't nearly as patient; she was too tired. "Professor," she said as she walked up to the desk, "Is Mr. Weasley alright? And where's Harry? And George, and Ron, and-"

"Sit down Emma, and Hermione, you too," McGonagall said quietly. They did as they were told. "You two look as if you haven't slept all night, would you care for some tea?"

"Yes, please, Professor," Hermione said politely.

McGonagall waved a hand and three tea cups appeared on the desk in front of them. Hermione and Emma picked up their tea and drank as McGonagall told them about Mr. Weasley being found and brought to St. Mungo's and Harry and the Weasley's being sent to Headquarters so they could be close to the hospital.

Emma and Hermione sighed in relief.

"Now, I would go up to your dormitory and pack for the holidays if I were you two. You're spending the holiday with your parents, right Ms. Granger? And you with your grandparents, Ms. Mackenzie?" McGonagall asked. The girls both nodded and stood up, thanking her for the tea and wishing her a Happy Christmas.

By that evening, Emma was being picked up at the train station by her grandmother.

"Sunshine!" she heard her grandmother shout from behind her. Emma turned around, dropped her luggage and ran to her, hugging her. Oh, my beautiful baby, you've gotten so tall," Grandma Mary said holding by the shoulders, "And you look just like your mother." She kissed Emma on each cheek then walked over to where Emma had dropped her luggage.

"Oh Grandma, I've got that," Emma said, quickly picking up the bag. She grabbed her grandmother's hand with her free one and they both walked to the car.

Half an hour later they were pulling into the driveway of the tiny cottage where her grandparents lived. Emma dragged her bag inside the house. She had just sat the bag down and was hanging her coat on the rack when she heard her grandfather's voice.

"Is that my beautiful granddaughter?" Grandpa Joe said.

Emma quickly turned around to see her grandfather in the entry way, sitting in a wheelchair. He looked weak but cheerful as ever. "Grandpa!" Emma screamed, running over and throwing her arms around his neck. He squeezed her tightly, shaking her from side to side.

"Careful, Emma, he's still recovering," Grandma Mary said, closing the door behind her and hanging up her coat.

"Oh, Mary, you worry too much," Grandpa Joe said as Emma let go of him, "Now, I was just making some of my world famous bangers and mash for dinner. Would you like to come help your Grandfather in the kitchen, my little sunflower?"

Emma nodded, beaming, and pushed her grandfather's wheelchair back into the kitchen. After dinner, they all sat around the table chatting about school.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that school is going well," Grandma Mary said as she started to clear the table, "Oh, I meant to ask, how's Seamus doing?" she called from the kitchen.

"Actually, we broke up," Emma said, clearing her throat.

Grandma Mary walked back into the dining room holding a dish towel, "Oh, I'm so sorry, sweetie!"

"Oh, I'm sure our Emma is doing just fine," Grandpa Joe said patting her on the shoulder.

"Actually, I really am," Emma said, "It was for the best."

"Still, I'm sorry, sweetie, I always thought he was good for you," Grandma Mary said before she walked back into the kitchen to continue doing the dishes.

"I didn't," Grandpa Joe said flatly.

"JOE!" Grandma Mary screamed from the kitchen.

Grandpa Joe smirked at Emma and she laughed, "He was too short. Emma should be dating someone tall, someone strong, and funny. Someone who can take care of my little sunflower," he said proudly.

"Thanks, Grandpa," Emma said smiling.

Grandma Mary walked back into the dining room and sat down again.

"Emma can date whomever she likes, Joe," she said, looking at Emma, who was no looking down at her hands. "Wait, Emma, darling, is there another boy?"

"Well… actually yes there is," Emma said blushing, "You know my friend Ron? Well, it's his older brother George."

"One of those twin jokesters?" Grandpa Joe asked excitedly.

"Yup, that one," Emma said as she started to tell them all about her and George. It was nice to be able to open up to someone about their relationship since they had been keeping it a secret for so long.

A few days later, on Christmas Day, after Emma and her grandparents had opened presents, Emma received an owl from George.

Emma scanned the letter quickly and sighed in relief, "Oh, thank God!" she exclaimed.

"What is it, honey?" Grandma Mary asked.

"I just got a letter from George, his father is ok. They're releasing him today so he can spend the rest of the holiday's at home," Emma said.

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Grandma Mary exclaimed.

Emma nodded and looked down at the letter again. She felt stupid for it, but she already missed George. It had only been a few days since she had seen him, but she had spent those few days worrying like crazy, and now, all she wanted to do was hug him and celebrate with the rest of the Weasleys.

Her grandfather must have noticed the look on the face, because he started to speak, "Emma, if you want to go spend the rest of the holidays with your friends and new boyfriend, we wouldn't mind," he said smiling.

"What? No, I-" Emma started to say but was interrupted by the phone ringing. Her grandmother answered it.

"Emma, it's for you. It's your friend Hermione."

Emma took the phone, "Hello?"

"Happy Christmas, Emma!" she heard Hermione through the receiver, "Did you get a letter from the Weasleys this morning?"

"Happy Christmas, Hermione. Yea, I did. I'm so glad to hear about Mr. Weasley," Emma said into the phone.

"Me too, I'm actually making my way to headquarters now."

"Wait, I thought you were skiing with your parents?" Emma asked confused.

"I was," Hermione answered, "I realized that I hate skiing. Do you want to come too?"

Emma looked at her Grandparents. They both mouthed "Go," at her. "You know what?" Emma started, "Yea, I do. How are you getting there?"

By early that afternoon, Emma and Hermione had arrived at Grimmauld Place and were sitting in the living room opening presents with Ron, Harry, Ginny, Fred, and George. Emma had gotten a book on Tarot Card reading from Hermione, a big box of fudge from Harry and Ron, and a new set of knitting needles from Ginny.

"Our turn," Fred said pulling out a few small boxes and handing them to each of the girls.

They each opened their box and found a small, silver and rainbow ring.

"Is this what I think it is?" Hermione asked, pulling the ring out of the box and putting it on her finger. It instantly changed color to a light green. "Oh, it is!"

"Not exactly," George said.

"It's like a muggle mood-ring, but better," Fred continued. Emma and Ginny both put their rings on as well.

"It actually can tell your emotions, and changes color accordingly," George said.

"And, for extreme emotions, like anger or depression, it'll change temperatures or send out sparks. It's something we're developing for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. You guys are our test group," Fred finished.

"Oh! Speaking of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," Emma said reaching into her bag and pulling out an envelope, "Time for my present." She handed Fred the envelope.

"What is it?" George asked looking at the envelope in Fred's hand confused.

"It's for both of you. Remember how my grandfather owns a muggle joke shop?" Emma said. The twins nodded and she continued, "Well, he decided after his heart attack that he was going to retire, so he sold the business to a big corporation. He's using most of the money to pay off his medical bills, but, I told him all about your business idea, and he said he wanted to invest in you guys."

"He what?" asked Fred shocked.

"His only condition is that you guys sell some classic muggle joke items in your shop," Emma said.

Fred started to open the envelope. His mouth dropped open as he looked at a check. He didn't know exactly how much money it was, but he knew it was a lot based on the number of zeros. He jumped up and brought Emma into a bone crushing hug.

Emma started to laugh and George jumped up and pulled the check out of Fred's hand.

"Wait, this is in muggle money, though," George said.

"Give it here," Hermione said, taking the check out of George's hand.

Fred let Emma go to look at Hermione, "So how much is it?" he asked.

Hermione stared at the check for a moment doing some mental math then finally said, "About 4,560 galleons."

Fred and George looked at each other in shock.

All of a sudden, before Emma even knew what was happening, George picked her up and kissed her hard on the mouth as he twirled her in a circle. He set her down but kept his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Uh, George?" Emma whispered and jerked her head towards Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry, who were staring at the two of them with looks of surprise on their faces (all except for Harry).

"I knew it!" Ginny exclaimed.

George stepped nervously away from Emma and blushed, "Uhhh," he stammered.

"About time, I was tired of covering for you two," Harry said nonchalantly.

"Me too," Fred agreed, taking the check out of Hermione's hand and tucking it into his shirt pocket.

"Wait, you knew and didn't tell me?" Ron asked Harry incredulously.

Hermione got up and walked over to Emma, "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked sounding almost hurt.

"I didn't tell anyone. Harry and Fred just found out on their own. We were going to tell people eventually, it was just going so well…" Emma said trailing off.

Hermione smiled and opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when Mrs. Weasley walked into the room.

"Dinner's ready- What's all the fuss in here about?" Mrs. Weasley said, reading the room.

Ginny immediately spoke up, "George has got a girlfriend!"

"George has a what?" Mrs. Weasley said in disbelief, "Oh, George, why didn't you say anything? Who is it?"

George blushed but before he could answer Ginny spoke up again, "Emma," she said teasingly.

Mrs. Weasley gasped and rushed over to them both. "Oh, that's just so wonderful!" she exclaimed, pulling Emma into a suffocating hug.

"Mom, will you stop crushing my girlfriend, please? And can we all stop talking about my lovelife and eat dinner?" George said impatiently.

Mrs. Weasley let go of Emma, "Oh, fine. You're awfully grouchy for someone who gets to spend the holidays with the girl they love," she said curtly before walking out of the room and into the dining room.

George blushed as everyone except him and Emma laughed and followed Mrs. Weasley into the dining room for dinner.


	19. Chapter 19: Elves and Christmas Gifts

**Sorry it's taken me so long to update! I hit a writing block, but I think I found my inspiration again. I hope you enjoy!

After dinner, Emma tried to sneak off to her room without Hermione or Ginny noticing. She knew that they were going to either yell at her for keeping George a secret or ask her a bunch of questions about it, and she didn't particularly feel like dealing with either. She had just gotten to the top of the stairs when she heard a voice from behind her.

"Not so fast, sneaky," the voice said.

Emma turned around slowly. It was Ginny. Emma smiled awkwardly at her and Hermione, who was standing behind Ginny on the stairs.

"Bedroom, now," Ginny ushered Emma quickly into her room and sat on one of the beds next to Hermione. Emma sat on the bed opposite them and curled her legs underneath her. She shifted uncomfortably as Ginny and Hermione stared at her as if they expected her to start explaining herself immediately. Emma said nothing and just stared back awkwardly.

"So, George?" Hermione asked matter of factly.

Emma took a deep breath before starting to speak, "Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about George and me. We were going to eventually, honest. We just weren't really sure- and we were afraid that-" she said all of this very quickly. She wasn't really sure what to say to them exactly.

"Afraid of what?" Hermione asked.

Emma looked down at her hands, "What you guys would think I guess, we were trying to figure out what exactly we were before saying anything. I mean, there would've been no point in everyone knowing our business if we didn't have any actual feelings for each other," she said quietly.

"So how did it happen?" Ginny asked.

Emma told them both all about that night in the common room when George had first kissed her and about their second kiss in the transfiguration hallway.

"Wow, my brother has some moves," Ginny laughed.

Emma blushed. "Yea, he's quite the charmer."

"Look at her blush, Hermione," Ginny teased. "You really like him don't you?"

"I do," Emma smiled.

"Wait, so that date you had a few months ago, was that actually with George?" Hermione asked suddenly.

"Yea, that was George."

"Wait, but you said it was Malcolm Preece," Ginny said.

"Oh, I just said that to mess with Fred. He was being awfully nosey," Emma said with a laugh.

"Wait, so you were talking about George," Ginny said slowly, "Ugh, we were gossiping about my brother's snogging. Gross," she shuddered, prompting Emma and Hermione to start laughing.

"What are we laughing about?" Ron said as he walked into the room, followed by Harry.

"George's snogging," Hermione said quickly and all three girls burst out laughing again.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Can we not talk about my best friend snogging my brother? Honestly, Ginny, how can you even gossip with her about that?" he said with disgust before sitting down on the bed next to his sister. Harry took a seat on the bed next to Emma.

"It doesn't… bother you does it?" Emma asked Ron hesitatingly, "That I'm dating your brother, I mean," she looked at him nervously.

"No, 'spose not. Just a little weird is all, I mean, it's George. I didn't really think he dated," Ron replied with a shrug.

"Actually, according to Emma, George is quite the charmer," Hermione said.

"Yeah, real ladies man. He probably just doesn't tell you everything, nosey," Ginny said pointedly.

"Yea, didn't he take Angelina to the Yule Ball last year?" Hermione asked.

As much as Emma was enjoying making Ron uncomfortable with their gossip, she was getting a little irritated with this particular focus in conversation. She didn't really care about who George dated before her, but that didn't mean she wanted to talk about it, "That was Fred," Emma said flatly. "Now, can we please talk about something else?"

"Yes, please," Harry said in agreement.

They sat and talked and laughed for hours until Mrs. Weasley came by to usher the boys off to bed. Emma changed into her pjs, brushed her teeth, and was just getting ready to settle into bed when she decided to go down to the kitchen get a glass of water. She walked into the kitchen and reached up into the cabinet by the sink for a glass.

"What are you still doing up?" a voice said behind her, startling her and causing her to drop the glass on the counter, shattering into tiny pieces.

"Shoot!", she exclaimed as she jumped back to avoid the shards hitting her bare feet and turned around. "George, you startled me!"

George smirked and walked closer to her. "Sorry," he said as he pulled his wand out of the waistband of his pajama bottoms. "Reparo." With a wave of his wand, the glass shards flew back together, mending the glass. "Good as new," he said, tucking the wand back in his waistband, "So what are you still doing up?"

"Well, I was getting some water until my boyfriend scared the living daylights out of me," she teased, crossing her arms.

He laughed and stepped closer to her. He wrapped his arms loosely around her waist, leaving enough room that she could still look up at him. "I gotta say, I do like hearing that," he said smiling down at her.

She couldn't help but return the smile. She uncrossed her arms and placed her hands on his chest to steady herself as she leaned up to kiss him.

"You know, with all the madness of everyone finding out about us, I never got to give you your Christmas present," he said softly, Emma's face still close to his after their kiss.

She let herself fall off of her tip toes, allowing her to look more directly at George. "Wait, I thought the ring was my present. You didn't have to get me anything," she protested but smiled despite herself.

"That was shameless promotion and a way of getting out of having to buy actual presents. Come on," he grabbed her hand and led her into the living room. The remains of the log in the fireplace were slowly burning out giving off a faint, but romantic light. Emma sat down on the couch by the fireplace while George walked over to the Christmas tree and pulled out a small box from underneath hidden in the back. He sat down next to her and set the box in her lap. "Go ahead, open it," he said smiling at her.

She ripped the paper off of the box and took the lid off. Inside the box was a small cloth doll only about the size of the palm of her hand. It appeared to be made out of a worn muslin, with burgundy yarn making up the hair and it was wearing a dark blue dress. The doll looked just like her, but it wasn't just that fact that made her go speechless.

"It looks just like the one I had when I was a little girl," she said to herself, barely audible. She lifted the doll out of the box slowly and turned it over in her hands before looking up at George with a tear welling up in her eye. "How… it looks just like the one that I had when I was little. But no one but my mom would… How?"

"Your mom…" he said paused before he continued to speak, "and your house elf."

Emma was speechless. She never told him about Penny, her house elf, so how did he find out?

"One day, I went down to the kitchens and I was nearly tackled by this house elf dressed in free clothes. She tackled me and said that I had to be the one that 'her Emma' was always talking about. I must have looked confused, so she told me all about how you had accidentally freed her when you were little, and how she decided to stay and work for your family."

"She basically raised me. She's who taught me how to knit. When I came to Hogwarts my first year, well, I didn't want to go without Penny, so Dumbledore gave her a job in the kitchens. I never told anyone about her, not even Seamus," she trailed off, looking back at the doll while George continued.

"So, after my surprise faded-"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you-"

George grabbed Emma's hands to stop her and smiled, "Don't. But anyway, I hadn't figured out what to get you for Christmas yet, and she told me about the doll you had as a kid, so she made me this to give to you. Do you like it?" he smiled awkwardly, hoping the answer was yes.

Emma set the doll and the box down on the coffee table before leaning forward to kiss him. "I love it. It's the sweetest thing anyone has ever gotten me. I just can't believe that you went through the trouble. George, I -" she stopped herself short before she said anything she might regret.

"Em, about what my mom said earlier…" he trailed off nervously.

"You don't have to say anything," she said reassuringly, "It's early and I know your mom was just-"

"She wasn't completely off-base," he cut her off quickly as if he needed to say something before he lost his nerve.

Her mouth fell open slightly. She hadn't expected that… at all.

"I know we haven't been dating that long, and I'm not saying _that_ quite yet," he took a breath before continuing, "but, I do really care about you."

She felt her cheeks flush as he smiled at her. "I- I really care about you, too George. I definitely didn't expect to be falling for you like this…" she trailed off, at a loss for words. Thankfully, she didn't have to speak anymore, because George grabbed her and kissed her. If she had been standing, she would have gone weak at the knees. They had shared plenty of kisses before, but this was different. This kiss said something more than just "you're cute" or "I like you"; and it left Emma breathless.

They broke apart and leaned their foreheads against each other.

After a few moments Emma spoke again, "So, I got you something too. Well, something else anyway."

"You got me something besides nearly 4600 galleons?" he asked with surprise.

"Well technically, I didn't get you that. My grandfather did. Hold on," she quickly got up, ran to the tree, and returned with a medium box.

She waited patiently for him to unwrap the box and pull out the long, green scarf. "I know you're used to getting hand-knit Christmas presents, but that's the scarf I was knitting the night you first kissed me. I thought you might like to have it."

He wrapped it around his neck and smiled proudly, causing her to giggle. "It's brilliant. Green is my favorite color you know," he said still posing like a model.

She laughed again, a little louder this time.

"Shh, you'll wake the whole house up with that adorable laugh of yours," he whispered, tickling her ribs a little, causing her to laugh even more.

She curled up into a ball to prevent him from tickling her more and leaned into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. She sighed happily and closed her eyes, but they jumped open again when she heard a voice behind her.


	20. Chapter 20: Late Night Worries

"I thought Molly sent all of you children to bed."

Emma sat upright and turned around to see Sirius in the doorway leading to the hallway.

Sirius laughed quietly. "Don't worry, I won't tell. Who am I to discourage two lovebirds? But, you two should probably get off to bed before Molly finds you."

George nodded, got up and leaned over to kiss Emma on the cheek. "Happy Christmas, MacKenzie," he whispered, reverting back to his old nickname for her.

She smiled at him as he walked past Sirius and through the doorway. She started to get up and follow him out when Sirius stopped her.

"Actually, Emma, now that I've got you," Sirius said as he walked over to the couch opposite her and sat down.

Emma sat back down and looked at him expectantly.

"I was hoping I could talk to you about my godson," Sirius said slowly, wringing his hands in his lap.

It was a change from how Emma had usually seen him. Even when she had first met him back in 3rd year while he was on the run, Sirius always carried himself with a certain amount of confidence. It was only when it came to Harry, when he was worried about him, that he seemed uncertain and uncomfortable.

"You're worried about him," Emma observed quietly.

Sirius straightened up and smoothed his hands over the legs of his trousers. He looked at Emma with slight surprise. "You're a very observant young girl, Emma. I can see why Harry is so fond of you," he said with a small smile. "But, yes, I'm worried about him. He's carrying an awfully heavy load on his shoulders, and I'm worried that he- well, does he talk about any of it? I see so much of James in him, and if there's anything I knew about James, it was that he usually kept his feelings bottled up until they exploded."

"Sounds like our Harry," Emma said before she could stop herself. "What I mean is, well, yes. He's been keeping a lot to himself lately, but I think he knows that we're all here for him. I think he just thinks that everything that's happening is somehow all his fault. Especially what happened to Mr. Weasley…" she trailed off and paused a moment. "I think what he might need are some words of wisdom from his godfather," she added with a little more confidence.

Sirius smiled at her. "Thank you, Emma. You always tell things like they are; you never tell anyone what they want to hear. Harry is lucky to have you as a friend. Now off to bed before Molly kills me for being a bad influence," he added with a laugh.

"You? A bad influence? Never," Emma said with a smirk. "Goodnight, Sirius," she said as she got up, picked up her doll and went up the stairs.

When she got upstairs to her room she was surprised to find Hermione still awake reading.

"Where did you go?" Hermione asked, closing her book and setting it on the side table.

Emma pulled the covers down on her bed and crawled beneath them. "I went down for a glass of water, but George was down there and…" she trailed off when she saw the look of amusement on Hermione's face.

"Oh?" Hermione said, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, shut up!" Emma said as she pulled one of the pillows from behind her and whipped it at Hermione. "We just exchanged our Christmas presents since we didn't get to before…" she trailed off again looking at the doll in her hands.

"Is that what he got you?" Hermione asked.

"Yea," Emma said as she told Hermione about the doll and her conversation with George.

"Oh, that's so sweet! I can't believe he got you something so… heartfelt."

"I know, I was so surprised. It makes my scarf kinda pale in comparison…"

"You know," Hermione said tentatively, "I have to admit that earlier, when I found out about you two, I was skeptical. I just, well you know George, him and Fred are so… well I just wasn't sure that George was right for you. But clearly I underestimated him."

"I'm really falling for him, Hermione. It's a little…"

"Scary?"

"God, yes," Emma said with a laugh, which Hermione joined in on.

"Wait," Hermione said after a pause, "You said 'house elf' before. You have a house elf?"

"A free house elf," Emma corrected quickly to prevent the rant she knew Hermione had somewhere in her brain already ready-to-go. Before she could stop herself, she was filling Hermione in on the secrets she had told George that night in the common room.

"Oh, my- bloody hell, Emma," Hermione said in shock.

Emma looked at her friend with wide eyes. "'Bloody hell'? Someone's been letting Ron rub off on them," she teased. "You're not mad are you? That I've been lying I mean…"

"No, I mean, you didn't lie exactly. I just wish you could have trusted me with this… but I do understand."

"I do trust you. I just need to work on showing it. George has shown me that. You know, since I've started seeing him I haven't had a single panic attack."

"Really?" Hermione asked. "That's fantastic… but are you sure that the two things aren't just coincidental?"

Emma smiled. One of the things she loved about Hermione was her skepticism. "I don't think he's the sole reason, but I'm definitely getting out of my head more now. I guess I just never let my guard down so completely before… it's quite freeing actually" She smiled to herself again. "Well, it's late. We should get to bed."

"You're probably right," Hermione said before blowing out the candle.

They laid there for a few minutes in silent before Hermione spoke again. "I don't want to sound like I'm telling you what to do, but you should probably tell the boys what you just told me; at least Harry. He's been feeling out of the loop as it is."

I know…" Emma turned over to face Hermione. "Sirius is worried about him. He stopped me downstairs to ask me how he's been doing."

"I'm worried about him, too. According to Ginny he spent the first few days of the holiday before we got here sulking. She tried to knock some sense into him; remind him that he's not the only one who has had their brain controlled by…" Hermione trailed off, but Emma knew what she was getting at.

"I had almost forgotten…" Emma said, feeling a pang of guilt. Harry HADN'T been the only one to be mind controlled by Voldemort; Ginny had been in her first year when she had possession of the Tom Riddle diary.

"Harry had forgotten too, I think everyone has… except Ginny. But I think he still blames himself for so much…"

"That's what I said to Sirius…" Emma said trailing off.

They both kept silent for a few more minutes, not having much more to say before they both fell asleep.

The next few days of the holiday went by without any event. Mr. Weasley had mostly recovered from the attack, and the news of Emma and George's relationship had lost its novelty, which they both couldn't have been happier about. Although they kind of missed the minor excitement they got from sneaking around, it was nice to be able to act like a couple. The last night before the bus back to Hogwarts Emma sat curled up under a blanket on the couch by the fire reading the book Hermione had gotten her for Christmas. Hermione sat opposite her in an arm chair looking frazzled as she read over the concluding paragraph of her most recent History of Magic essay one more time.

George walked into the room and plopped down on the couch next to Emma. "Please tell me you aren't already studying? Break isn't even over yet."

Emma stuck a bookmark in the page she was reading, closed the book and set it on the arm of the couch. "No, just some light reading."

George threw his arm lazily around Emma's shoulders. She nuzzled into him, pulling the blanket closer around herself. "Cold?" he asked, hugging her closer and kissing the top of her head.

"No, just like being cozy," Emma smiled up at him before looking back to Hermione.

Hermione let out a frustrated sigh as she measured her parchment, "Ugh I'm still an ⅛ of an inch short," she exclaimed letting the parchment roll up again.

"I hardly think that Professor Binns is going to notice an ⅛ of an inch, Hermione," George said, "I mean, he can't really measure essays himself anyway. He's a ghost."

Hermione looked up startled, not realizing that he had sat down.

"You know, I always wondered how he even read our essays and graded them," Emma mused. "Come on, Hermione. Take a risk, live a little. You can study when we get back."

"Which will be in a few hours," Mrs. Weasley said as she entered the room. "The Knight Bus is scheduled to get here in 2 hours, so everyone go make sure that they're packed." She paused to look at Emma and George cuddled together on the couch and smiled. "Oh, I just can't get over how cute you two are together! And I always thought that George was never going to bring a girl home-"

George went red. "Mum!"

Emma laughed. "I for one, half expected him, Lee and Fred to just move in with each other and grow old together. You know, knitting by the firs with some cats."

Mrs. Weasley and Hermione both started laughing as George gave Emma a look of complete un-amusement.

"Don't forget, 2 hours until the Knight Bus gets here," Mrs. Weasley said, still laughing as she left the room.

Hermione stacked her books and got out of her chair, "I'm gonna go finish packing."

"I'll be up in a few minutes," Emma said. Hermione nodded and left the room.

Emma looked back at George who was still giving her an unamused look. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and bit her lip innocently.

He groaned slightly before smiling and hugging her tightly. "You're lucky you're cute," he said quietly into her hair. She giggled and looked up at him. He smiled slightly and leaned his forehead against hers. "You know, for once I can't wait to get back to school," he said quietly.

"And why is that?"

He kissed her quickly in response. "I haven't gotten to do that nearly as often as I would like to."

"Well, when we get back I guess we'll just have to fix that," she said with a smirk before biting her lip. "But, right now I've gotta go pack," she kissed him quickly on the cheek before getting up and leaving the room.


	21. Chapter 21: Snowball Fights

Emma climbed the stairs on the way to her room, but after a brief pause at her floor decided to keep climbing. After another flight of stairs and a walk down the long hallway, she found herself outside of Harry's door. It was cracked open, but she decided to knock still to be safe.

"Come in," she heard Harry say from inside.

She opened the door and saw Harry sitting on his bed next to his open and empty bag. "Packing not going so well, is it?" she said before walking over to the other bed and sitting across from him.

Harry looked at her and attempted to smile, "You know I'm rubbish at packing."

Emma laughed softly. After a moment of awkward silence, she noticed a wrapped package with the other things left to be packed. "What's that?"

"Present from Sirius."

Emma took a quick deep breath, "Did he talk to you?" she asked quietly.

"He did. Look I know everyone is worried about me, but I don't need everyone to check up on me every 10 minutes, I'm not a child. So if that's why you came by-" he snapped.

"Well it's pretty childish to snap at the people who care about you just for showing they care," she snapped back before he could finish.

Harry took a deep breath and looked down at his hands. After a moment Emma softened her glare. She got up and started packing Harry's bag for him, putting the present from Sirius in the bag after his school books.

"I actually didn't come by to check on you," she said quietly as she folded his clothes and put them in the bag. "Well I kind of did, cause I know you hate packing, but I actually wanted to tell you something." She took a deep breath before starting to tell him about her family's relationship to the Malfoys, all the while continuing to fold as to avoid looking at Harry.

She spoke quickly and nervously, and when she finished Harry stayed silent. He was silent for what seemed like a few minutes, which caused Emma to start panicking. She started rearranging the already packed bag, too afraid to look at him. He grabbed her arm to stop her.

She sat next to him. "I'm so sorry I never told you, I just knew how much you two hated each other. And after our first year, when he pretended like he didn't know me I thought that I could pretend too, and I meant to say something, but I just kept putting it off and putting it off and-"

"Emma, breathe. I'm not mad," Harry said. "Actually, I'm glad you didn't tell me right away. Eleven years old me probably wouldn't have trusted you." He smiled slightly as a wave of relief washed over Emma.

"I just know how much you hate being kept out of the loop, and I didn't want to do that anymore. I'm trying to be more open," she looked at him with her eyebrows raised.

"And I should do the same, I know. I already said Sirius talked to me. I'm guessing he came to you first?"

"Guilty. Harry," Emma turned to face him, "I know you are more than capable handling yourself but-"

"I know, Em. I'll try."

She threw her arms around his neck tightly.

"Oof-"

"Don't strangle him, Emma," Ron said as he walked into the room. Emma let go and smiled at Harry apologetically. "What did I miss?"

"Emma's rich and her dad is best friends with Lucius Malfoy," Harry said matter-of-factly.

"Harry!" Emma said as she hit him hard in the arm.

"Ouch! I wasn't finished. He's best friends with Lucius Malfoy BUT he's a good guy." Harry rubbed his arm, "That hurt, Em."

Emma rolled her eyes and looked at Ron.

"Wait, what?" Ron asked, confused causing Emma and Harry to laugh.

By that evening everyone was back at Hogwarts and sitting in the Gryffindor common room. Emma was sitting on the floor with her back leaned against George's legs as she played chess with Ron. Ginny sat by the window, looking out at the snow.

"It's really coming down out there. It looks like there's going to be at least a few feet by tomorrow morning," she said as she joined everyone else by the fire.

"You know what that means?" Fred asked from one of the oversized armchairs.

"Snowmen?" Emma asked, excitedly. "Oh, and check mate."

"Dammit!" Ron exclaimed. "How?"

Emma laughed.

"No, snowball fight," Fred said ignoring Ron's outburst.

The next morning, after breakfast, everyone went outside to play in the snow. Like Ginny had predicted, there were several feet at least on the ground.

"All right, how do we want to divide the teams?" Fred asked.

"Boys versus girls?" Hermione suggested.

"Won't that be unfair?" Ron pointed out.

"Why? Because girls aren't strong enough to beat boys?" Ginny challenged.

"I think he meant because the teams will be uneven," Harry said.

"I don't know Ronald you forget that time that Ginny almost beat us single handed…" George said with a shudder. "She was vicious."

Ginny smiled proudly as Emma and Hermione laughed.

"Alright, boys versus girls it is," Emma said as she bent down to gather a snow ball. "Starting… NOW!" she screamed as she threw a snowball square at Ron's face.

Within minutes there was chaos. Hermione, Ginny, and Emma all hid behind a massive bush that protected them from a majority of the assault.

"Ok, I'll run to draw their fire," Ginny said. "Then you two can catch them off guard."

"Sound's like a plan," Hermione said.

"Good luck," Emma said as Ginny bolted from behind the bush. Emma peeked from behind their cover and watched the boys abandon their base in order to chase after Ginny. Seizing their opportunity, Emma and Hermione leaped out from behind their cover and began pelting the boys with their stockpile of snowballs.

One of the ones Emma threw hit George right in the back of the head. He turned around to see where it had come from. "Hey! I thought we said none to the head!" he shouted.

"We said no such thing!" Emma shouted back as she threw another snowball at him, this time hitting him in the face. She covered her mouth to suppress a laugh, "Sorry! That one was an accident!" she shouted to him.

"Oh, now it's on," George said as he broke into a run towards her.

Emma screamed and laughed at the same time and ran in the opposite direction. "Hermione, go help Ginny!" she shouted before she booked it back toward the castle. Emma screamed again as George caught up to her.

"Got you," he said as he grabbed her from behind.

Her scream turned into laughter as she struggled to break free from his grasp. Her struggles made him lose balance, causing them to both fall down into the snow. He let her go, letting her turn to face him. She started laughing again as he rolled over to pin her to the ground. "Ok! Ok! I give up!" she said, still laughing.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" he said with a smirk. "I couldn't hear you."

"I yield, you win. Can you let me go now?"

"Nope," he said with a smirk. "Do I get a prize for winning?" he asked.

She leaned up and kissed him softly. He let go of her arms, moving his hands to her hair. She wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening their kiss. They broke apart after about a minute when they heard footsteps coming up the pathway leading to the castle.

"Emma?" a voice said.

George looked up then rolled off of Emma, allowing her to prop herself up to look at who called her. It was Seamus. She tried to get up, but before she was able to he had stormed off to the castle.  
"Well, that could have gone better," Emma sighed as she felt her stomach begin to turn.

George sat up and looked at her, not sure what to say.

She smiled weakly and leaned over to kiss him. "Don't worry about it," She rested her hand on his chest as she kissed him again. He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer as the rest of the group walked up.

"Oh so that's what you were doing as we got our asses handed to us by the girls," Fred said bitterly, causing Emma and George to pull apart.

"Ignore him," Ginny said. "Was that Seamus I just saw stalking towards the castle?"

"Yup," Emma said flatly.

"Well that's awkward," Ron said matter-of-factly. "What? It is, I mean he caught his ex snogging someone else?" he said defensively after a glare from Hermione.

"Well, at least it wasn't Harry. He might have actually imploded if that was the case," Emma said with a laugh. Hermione and Ginny looked at her with surprise. "Guys, it's fine. You go on ahead back to the castle, we'll meet you up there in a little." Emma reached over to hold George's hand.

"Got it," Fred said with a wink. "Come on you lot, they want some time alone."

George rolled his eyes at his brother and watched everyone walk back towards the castle. When they were out of sight he looked back at Emma, who had instinctively pulled her knees to her chest. "They're gone, are you ok?"

Emma closed her eyes and rested her chin on her knees. She slowly shook her head. She could feel her heart starting to race along with her thoughts. She took a deep breath and held it in for a few seconds before letting it out. George tentatively put his arm around her shoulder. She took another deep breath and leaned into him. She let go of her knees and nuzzled into his warm chest.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "Can we go back up to the castle? I'm a little cold."

"Yeah, sure," he said, helping her up.


	22. Chapter 22: Confessions and Confidence

They walked in silence back up to the castle. Instead of heading to the common room George led her to their spot behind the Gregory the Smarmy statue.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked once they had sat down and removed their snow-soaked outer clothes. "You looked a little pale there for a moment and it wasn't just the cold," he said, looking at her, still slightly worried.

She looked up, "I get panic attacks sometimes," she said quietly.

"That's what that was? I had no idea… how did I now know this?"

"Well, I haven't had one in months actually. Someone's been pretty good at getting me out of my own head lately," Emma smiled.

"Is that someone me?"

"Maybe," she teased. "You're just so… open. It's like nothing scares you, or phases you. You make me want to be more like that." She looked down at her hands.

"There's plenty that scares me; I just try not to dwell on it. Also," he reached forward, tilting her chin up to look into her face, "You're a lot braver and more open than you think you are. It's your carefree attitude that attracted me to you in the first place."

Emma blushed and smiled.

"Yup, that's it. That smile; that's what made me fall for you," he leaned forward and kissed her softly.

"So, what scares you?" Emma asked tentatively.

"Besides the obvious?" he asked, referring to the reason the Order was reformed.

Emma nodded.

"Bats," he said making Emma laugh. "And, well, if I'm being honest, you kinda do."

"Me?"

"I've never felt this way before. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. The other night… I said I really cared about you, but I think it may be more than that. I'm falling in love with you and it's terrifying," he looked down and grabbed her hands.

Emma felt her heart skip a beat. She tried to open her mouth to say something, but she couldn't.

"And now I'm scared because you haven't said anything," he said looking up at her nervously.

She looked into his kind eyes. "I- I think I-" she stammered. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady herself before smiling. She opened her eyes. "I love you, too," she said softly, but with a certain level of confidence.

Before she knew it, George was on top of her kissing her softly. He pulled away and looked at her smiling. She giggled as he kissed her nose. "Remember our first date, how we joked about how sappy we were?"

"Oh, yeah, we have far exceeded sappy at this point," he said laughing. "Not that I care much now; the hottest girl in Gryffindor house just told me she loved me."

She looked at his grinning face with eyebrows raised, "Just Gryffindor house?"

He laughed, "Well, the poll only covered Gryffindor."

"Oh, you took a poll did you?"

"No, that would be Lee," he laughed, then stopped looking at her face. "I'm in trouble now, aren't I?" he asked, rolling off of Emma and onto his side to look at her.

She pushed him onto his back and rolled on top of him, straddling him as she sat upright. He looked up at her surprised. She leaned down until she was inches from his face. "You'll only be in trouble if you ever answer anyone but me in one of Lee's little polls," she said with a smirk.

George ran his hands up her thighs to her waist, "Well, you were my answer before, so why would I change it?"

Before she had a chance to respond, George's lips were on hers. She deepened the kiss, parting his lips with her tongue. She felt his cold hands slide under her sweater, but she didn't jump like usual. She broke away from him for a moment and nodded. He grabbed the hem of her sweater and pulled it off over her head, leaving her in just her bra, then sat upright and pressed himself close to her body, kissing her again. She shifted to wrap her legs around him as he ran his hands over her bare torso. He trailed kisses from her lips to her chest, nibbling slightly at her collarbone. She let out a small gasp then reached for the hem of his sweater, pulling it over his head. She kissed him hard as she worked on unbuttoning the buttons of his shirt then ran her hands down his bare chest, making him jump slightly.

"Your hands are like ice," he whispered into her neck, his hot breath sending shivers down her spine.

She giggled slightly and wrapped her arms around him, underneath his shirt. "Yours aren't exactly warm either, you know?" she whispered into his ear before nipping his earlobe. He let out a small moan as she trailed kisses down his neck and she felt him stiffen slightly against her. She brought her face back up to his for a moment to look in his eyes.

"Should we stop?" he said through heavy breathing.

"What?" she breathed back, slightly confused.

"I just- you looked a little-"

"No, I-" she brought her hands up and ran them through his hair. "I've just never, well I didn't…" she blushed and let out an embarrassed laugh that turned into a strangled groan.

"I haven't either," he said bringing a hand to her cheek.

"Well, I haven't even gotten this far before... " she said quietly as she felt her stomach do somersaults.

"Oh," he said with surprise before he could stop himself. "Sorry, I just… well, you and Seamus dated for awhile and I just thought- ugh, shut up, George."

She smiled for a brief second before her stomach went back to knots. "No, I mean, I've snogged before I just… It was never this- and you've probably- I'm not making any sense and I'm mortified now," she said as she started to scoot off of his lap.

"Hey, hey, hey," he said quickly and reassuringly as he pulled her back to his chest and held her there for a moment before resting a hand on her cheek lifting her face slightly so he could look into her eyes. "If you think that all of this isn't new to me too then you'd be wrong," he said softly. Her eyes widened slightly with surprise. "What, did you think I was some secret player?" he teased gently.

"I don't know actually," she said quietly, "But you're older than me and I-" she was stopped short by a gentle kiss.

"I wasn't," George said simply. "Also, I love you. I just realized I never actually said that with any certainty like you did," he said with a small smile.

Emma blushed then smiled. She wrapped her arms around his neck again, hugging him. She nuzzled her face into his neck as he wrapped his arms around her tighter. She kissed him lightly on the neck right near his ear.

"Mmmm… Tease," he said quietly.

She pulled away to look into his eyes. "Sorry," she said as she started to chew her lip. "We probably should get back though."

He looked at her thoughtfully and she bit her lip again. "Not yet," he said mischievously before he kissed her again.

Later that day, Emma and George climbed through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room hand in hand and positively beaming.

"You guys were gone a while," Hermione said, smiling knowingly as she continued to knit the hat she was working on.

Emma blushed and looked at George, who squeezed her hand.

"Hermione, you seen Fred?" George said.

"I think he went to the kitchens."

"Thanks," he said to Hermione before turning to Emma. "See you later?"

Emma nodded and smiled as George kissed her on the cheek goodbye. She watched him walk back out through the portrait hole before looking back at Hermione, who was staring at her.

Hermione set her knitting down. "Ok, what in Merlin's name happened? I mean, you two were all cute and stuff before but now..." Emma sat down, still smiling. "You're positively beaming. I mean, you're a little disheveled; I'm pretty sure your sweater is on inside out, but- wait, did you-"

"No! Shhhh-" Emma lowered her voice to a whisper, "let's go upstairs and talk." The girls got up and went to climb the stairs when they ran right into Seamus, accompanied by Dean. He glared at her hard before stalking out of the common room. Dean looked at her apologetically before following.

"Oh, my," Hermione said quietly. "That was… uncomfortable."

"Oh, I can not even begin to think about him," Emma snapped as they climbed the stairs, not at Hermione but just in general. They got to their room and sat on their beds, facing each other "I realized something today, my panic attacks… they got worse when I lost my confidence... when I started feeling inadequate. Feelings that came back because of him. I worked very hard to not let myself be diminished by my brother's shadow, and I'm done letting Seamus take my brother's place in that sense."

"Well, about damn time," Ginny said, walking into the room "Sorry, I heard the tail end of that little rant as I was heading down the stairs. Good for you, Em." Ginny sat on Hermione's bed and looked at Emma thoughtfully for a moment. "Em, I think your sweater is on inside out- oh God, nope, I'm gonna pretend I didn't notice that," she said closing her eyes and shaking her head.

Emma laughed. "I'm gonna go change anyway, my pants and socks are still a little snow-damp," she said, getting up and rifling through her trunk for some warmer clothes.

"Ok, now back to why we came up here to begin with, what happened with George? Hermione said.

"Should I stay or leave for this?" Ginny asked tentatively.

Emma laughed as she stripped off her clothes, "You can stay." She pulled on a pair of leggings and a big sweater before sitting back down on her bed.

"Now what happened?" Hermione said impatiently

"He told me he loved me. Well, I mean first he said was falling in love with me, then I said I loved him too, then he said it, but- Oh, Hermione, I'm just so- I don't even have words to describe how I feel right now." She grabbed a pillow from her bed and hugged it tightly, smiling.

Hermione and Ginny squealed as Emma started to giggle happily.


End file.
